Antichrist
by Snooosh
Summary: Present day: On the outside Rosette is just a regular teenage highschool girl living in a small town. However she has an ungodly secret that nobody knows about. DARK AU.
1. The Satanist

A/N: Hi again, and welcome to my newest story. I know that you're probably thinking 'how the hell does this guy think he's can begin writing another story when he can't even get his lazy ass in motion and update his existing ones regularly?'

The answer to that question is that I have no friggin' idea whatsoever. However I've played around with this plot in my head for some time now, and felt that I might as well begin writing it since I've rounded another story off.

This story will be A LOT different from the others I've written. It is completely AU and has no connection to the original plot. Characters will be OOC in the sense that I'm taking virtually every likable or admirable trait away from everybody – this is a story with no heroes. I also want to give a word of warning. The rating and the genre for this fic are there for a reason, and this will become as dark as I am capable of writing. Therefore, if you're looking for a sweet mushy romancy story with a splash of humor in it you can stop reading now, because this is not it.

However if you don't mind something a bit darker, and I haven't managed to drive you off with my negative advertisement, then by all means read on – just don't say later on that I didn't warn you.

Disclaimer: If I did own the characters, I'd probably think twice about letting them participate in this.

* * *

Antichrist

By Shnoosh

Chapter 1 – The Satanist

* * *

"ROSETTE!" The voice of a teenage boy came from downstairs. 

"WHAT?" A girl's voice answered through the closed door to her room.

"DINNER!"

"COMING!"

The girl's name was Rosette Christopher. She was the oldest of three siblings, a sophomore in Magdalen high school and really just another ordinary teenage girl.

Her younger brother – the one who had called up the stairs – was a freshman in the same school, and their half sister was a 7th grader in junior high. They all lived with their mother in the town of Pandemonia – and yes it was about as much fun as it sounded like. With the possible exception of non-existing places such as Epidemia or Putreria, Rosette couldn't imagine anywhere she would rather get away from than where she was right now. Sure, the bible belt was filled to the brim with dead-beat villages like the one she was so 'fortunate' to be living in, but they typically weren't named after some obscure disease you'd catch by swimming in a sewer.

"ROSEEETTE!"

"I SAID COMING!"

Christ... you'd think that they'd stop yelling after you've made it obvious that you heard them the first time...

"NOW!"

Apparently not.

The door flew open, and a surly looking blue-eyed blonde stepped out. She stomped her way to the end of the hall, making sure that everybody downstairs could hear her footsteps. At the bottom of the stairs stood a smirking teenage boy with matching hair and eye color.

"Dammit Joshua... could you not be so annoying?"

"Well..." He replied with a satisfied grin. "It did bring you out of your little cave, didn't it?"

"Oh... shut up." She walked past him towards the dining room.

"Arh... come on. You know mom doesn't let us eat until we've said grace, and frankly... I'm starving."

"What're we having?"

"Mom's special."

_'Again?' _"Great..."

The remaining two members of her family were found in the dining room. Her mother – Kate – was standing at the opposite end of the round dining table looking very displeased with her eldest daughter's tardiness. She was holding a large steak fork, a chef's knife, and combined with her facial expression she mostly resembled someone soon-to-be-serial-killer. "How nice of you to join us young lady... maybe now we can say the Lord's grace and get something to eat."

Oh yeah... did she remember to mention that they lived in the bible belt – and that they did so for a very good (or very bad) reason?

According to the latest definitions by renowned psychologists her mom was... a certified religious fanatic.

Or at least she would be deemed so by anyone with a more healthy approach to the divine.

But since her social life primarily consisted of bible meetings with others from the congregation, or coffee-gatherings hosted by the local minister, the woman would probably never realize that herself. Rosette's mom literally got high on the bible – something normal people would achieve by taking some form of herb or chemical. The girl had played around with the idea of making a joint out of bible paper – that way she could claim to have gotten something out of the book too.

Joshua sat down next to his older sister and folded his hands. So did Rosette's younger half-sister – at least the hand-folding part, since she of course had been sitting and waiting patiently for the teen girl to come down. Little, sweet, polite Azmaria. Always on time... always so helpful... always doing what she was told... always such an irritatingly bratty little suck-up. Always on her best behavior with everybody – a truly sickening sight of somebody doing nothing but pleasing other people so they would think well of her. Always making Rosette look bad too.

The blonde teenager folded her hands as well.

"Lord..." The matron of the house began. "We thank thee for the food we are about to..."

_'Dammit... just get the bloody meat loaf blessed, so it can be eaten...'_ Rosette suppressed a little laugh... making that thing edible was probably too much for even good ol' God Almighty to accomplish, considering her mom's cooking skills.

After the redundant ceremony, Kate began cutting the burnt piece of ground beef into suitable slices, and handed them out to her children. Joshua immediately dug into his portion... he wasn't lying when he said that he was starving. Azmaria ate quietly keeping her table-manners in mind. Rosette sat with her hand under her chin and poked the meat with her fork. Perhaps it would run off the plate and hide if she stabbed it repeatedly...

"Rosette... eat your dinner."

"I'm not really hungry..." The girl replied with her eyes directed at the sad excuse for a meal.

"Suit yourself..." Kate turned her attention towards her own food. "...you're not getting anything else." She was clearly not in the mood to try and convince her teenage daughter that she should eat.

Rosette's eyes were fixated on her slice of meat loaf... truth be told she _was_ hungry... in fact her appetite had built up quite the reputation about her... she just wanted something a little more... tasty for a lack of better word. Her gaze wandered to the other people around the table. How they could eat this so easily was beyond her. For a woman who practically never went out to eat her mom was a remarkably poor cook, which was probably part of the reason she had been left... twice.

Rosette had deduced quite early in her life, that she was no planned child, and the fact that her mom was only 33 years old also served as a hint to that. From what she had found out, her mom and dad had been dating as teenagers and eventually they had a 'mishap' – some people just believe more in their deity than in the term 'safe sex'. The guy had tried to do the right thing: Staying with them, providing for them (at the age of 17...), and supposedly that made him deserve a bit of credit.

Some people just refuse to learn from their mistakes as well.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a coughing coming from her right side...

"Joshua... are you ok?" Rosette asked worriedly.

Azmaria had a fearful look in her eyes, Kate seemed ready to jump up and perform CPR.

The boy coughed again... and smiled... "Yeah..." another cough. "Just got some food down the wrong pipe..." and another cough.

Disaster averted.

Rosette looked at her brother to make sure that nothing serious was wrong, and she noticed how the other two females in the room did the same.

Joshua was only a year younger than her. Of course her mom and her then boyfriend would not stop practicing sex, and for various religious and ethical reasons they did not begin experimenting with the safe kind, or use any type of birth control. A second child shortly after the first was the inevitable consequence.

There were complications during labor however, and that resulted in Joshua getting some form of chronic illness which already had been dangerously close to killing him.

Apparently two kids – one of them requiring constant care – became too much for Rosette and Joshua's father, so one day Jesse Christopher simply packed a duffle bag and took off as fast as he could, not even leaving as much as a letter or a note.

Kate Valentine... being 19, largely on her own, and desperate to find a man who could provide for her children soon fell into the arms of one by the name of Ricardo Hendrick, and from that union came her half sister. Ricardo was not a very nice man, Rosette strongly suspected him of hitting her mom long before the trial. She couldn't understand why somebody would want to stay with a man who hurt her, but when she asked her mom about it she was almost slapped herself. The outraged woman had told (if you can call screaming and yelling that) Rosette to stay out of things she did not understand and sent her to her room. And although the woman never said it, the only nine year old girl had seen it clearly in her mom's eyes.

A look saying 'if it wasn't for you'.

So that was who she was... Rosette Christopher... the cause of all her mother's problems. The one who destroyed all her childhood dreams and all of her future by tying her down.

After the divorce from Ricardo and the following trial proceedings, it was clear that Kate would get custody of the kids, as well as a decent alimony, so at least some good came out of the marriage with him. He was of course furious with the decision – mainly (or only) due to the monetary aspect of it. In fact he could care less about the three kids. Even Azmaria.

Rosette drove the fork into the food on her plate... twisting it menacingly to rend deep into the meat loaf's innards.

Guys...

A bunch of cowards all of them... never willing to stand up for anybody but themselves... never sacrificing anything for anybody...

Well... except...

Her eyes settled on her brother who was finishing up his third slice. He was probably the nicest guy in the world, even though he could be annoying at times. She had once wondered if he was a good person because he was sick, or if he would be so even if he was well. The thought had immediately made her extremely guilty because she discovered that she would rather have him sick and nice than healthy and an asshole. She decided to believe that he would be nice whether or not he was suffering from anything, and that helped her into deciding one of her own major goals in life: Somehow... she was going to help him get better.

The other three were about to finish up their dinner now, and Rosette still hadn't eaten anything of hers, only mutilated it. Nevermind... she'd find something in the fridge later.

"Can I go watch TV?" Azmaria asked after finishing her meal, and rinsing her plate.

Gods... did she have to act so correct all the time?

"Sure... go ahead. Rosette you do the dishes tonight."

"WHAT?" The teenager exclaimed. "No way! It's Azmaria's turn, I did them two days ago!"

"Yes..." Kate responded. "But you didn't help out with setting the table, or cleaning up in the kitchen _and_ the living room like your little sister, now did you? It is only fair that you do the dishes then."

Azmaria was already happily skipping towards the living room, Rosette's eyes followed her with a stare of daggers.

The blonde was about to advocate her point of view again when she was stopped by a hand gripping her arm.

"Hey, if you wash, I'll dry." Joshua said with a little smile.

"Fine..." Rosette muttered and began clearing the table.

She stacked the plates to the right of the sink, grabbed the soap, opened the faucet, and started to fill the dishpan up. She could feel how her hands were already beginning to get wrinkled just by the premonition of being dipped into the hot water...

"You'd think in this day and age that we'd get a damn dishwasher... I think the majority of people in third-world countries have more appliances than us."

"Yeah..." Joshua responded, swinging the dishtowel around like a nunchaku. "But I guess as long as mom can get us to do it for free, she doesn't feel the need to buy one."

Rosette handed him a wet plate. "And they say that slavery was abolished... obviously that's only true outside your own family." She handed him one more. "I betcha she's gonna buy one when we move out."

"And a dvd..." He began stacking the plates on the dining table. "And a nice flatscreen tv, but hey... look at the bright side. When we get kids of our own we get to do the same, and use them as free labor around our houses too."

"Hell no... my kids would never be forced into doing something I'd rather hire a maid for." Rosette threw the cutlery into the pan. "Why can't _we_ get a maid?"

"A maid? Are you kidding?" Joshua grinned. "You'd really think mom would allow such a _sinnnnful woman_ into our home?"

"Bah... she's such a hypocrite. Have you seen how she's looking at the new minister during Sunday mass? I bet she's got more than her fair share of sinful thoughts going through her head."

"Yeah... hypocrisy is probably a family weakness." He put down the forks he had just dried. "I mean... mom trying to be all holy and you saying that you would rather hire a maid than let any future kids you might get do the dirty work around the house..."

"HEY!"

"But... its true." The blond boy regarded his elder sister with fake sincerity. "You're so lazy that you'd make them do aaaall the cleaning and aaaall the cooking. And they would stare at you with these biiiig hungry eyes as you devoured every little thing that they'd prepared for you, leaving only scraps for them."

"You'd better watch it." Rosette waved the chef's knife menacingly. "I'm holding a pretty big knife here, and I'm getting less and less afraid of using it."

"Oh no..." He grinned again. "My sister has finally lost it... HELP! SHE'S GONNA KILL US ALL!"

"Oh quit it..." Rosette muttered. "I'm not in the mood to be messed with right now."

"Too bad..." He nudged her in the side and smiled. "You're the the only person in this house I _can_ mess with... without having to worry that you're gonna break down and cry or strike me down with divine vengeance from the heavens."

In spite of herself, Rosette grinned. "Well, you're very welcome... just don't overdo it or you'll be struck down with divine vengeance from my fist."

Wiping off the last fork Joshua began putting everything in their respective places. Rosette emptied out the dishpan and cleaned the sink.

"So... wanna go watch some tv?" Joshua asked after finishing up.

"Nah... I'm just gonna go back to my room. Got some homework I need to do for tomorrow."

"Alright." He began walking towards the living room. "I won't tell anyone that you're raiding the fridge."

Rosette smiled again. He knew her just about as well as anybody could, and she knew he wouldn't tell when he said so. Besides it was only fair that she took some food as 'payment' for her dishwashing labor. She opened the refrigerator and looked for things to make sandwiches from...

_'There any peanut butter left?'_

There was, and it was the crunchy kind... somebody must like her after all. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches – now that was a wholesome meal covering all the important parts of the food pyramid.

With her nutritious loot in hand, Rosette made her way up the stairs towards her room. She closed and locked the door behind her, making enough space on the desk for her to get some dinner tonight too. Numerous pictures lay scattered across the desk – sort of hobby of hers. Ever since she had gotten a cell phone with camera – something she had spent quite some time saving up money for – she had enjoyed taking pictures and printing them out at school. Heaven and hell both knew she'd never get a decent computer at home for something like that. Her mom had been opposed to her getting the camera cell phone in the first place, even though Rosette had promised to pay for it herself.

Gulping down the first sandwich, she went through her pictures. Some were of people from school, some were of her friends... sort of... in reality she didn't like them that much, but in a small town you take what you can get. Some were of landscapes or buildings – those were usually not as interesting as she had expected when she took them. She ate another sandwich. One were of some construction workers erecting a new building 'downtown' – she had thought it would be nice to capture a picture of the building being built so she could look at it afterwards and see that at least a few things changed around here. The main focus of the image was stolen however by one of the workers showing the mandatory butt-crack sticking up from his pants... people were just so utterly predictable. She made a third sandwich. There were also some of Joshua and her. They were taken the very first day she got the cell to commemorate the event. She liked looking at those pictures. She looked happy in them, and she had been – Joshua too.

Finishing her fourth sandwich marked the limit of what her stomach could contain right now and she leaned back in her chair.

_'Damn homework...'_

But who was she kidding?

It wasn't as if she was gonna do them before tomorrow morning anyway – if she was gonna do them at all.

No, she had more important things to do now.

Perhaps Joshua knew her better than anybody else in the world.

That didn't mean he knew everything.

Checking once again that the door was locked, Rosette turned off the light so that only the desk lamp prevented the room from being completely dark. She went to open the top drawer in her desk. Five large and previously used pillar candles were in the it. With a determined look in her eyes the blonde girl grabbed the candles, placed them on the table, and lit them so she could turn off the desk lamp too. With only the soft candlelight to help her see, she walked to the middle of the room and began rolling the rug covering the floor into a cylinder. Removing the large piece of fabric revealed a figure underneath, sketched in some form of red paint. It was a five-pointed star encircled by two rings – the points of the star touching the inner ring. Five non-roman letters were inscribed in between the inner and the outer ring, one letter next to each of the star's points. The teen went to her desk, and took off her all of her clothes except her bra and panties, hanging the garments over the back of the chair. She grabbed the candles, and went back towards the center of the room, where she sat down in the middle of the pentagram, placing the lights carefully around her. One candle atop each of the foreign letters.

Rosette then closed her eyes, emptying her mind of all outside disturbances, trying to focus her thoughts the way she had been shown by that strange boy she had met 4 years earlier at a catholic summer school in Michigan.

* * *

And that's the first chapter done, hope it made for an interesting read. Since this story will be quite the dark one, I'm not exactly sure how it's going to be received, but at this point I am not expecting an overwhelming amount of readers. I guess I'll let it run for a few chapters and see how things turn out. So if you're reading and you're interested in me updating, let me know. 


	2. The New Guy

Serious Author talk:

Damn... I know... this chapter took me forever to write... not that I didn't try but if you've read the 'writing style' described in my profile I'll just say that it has been especially true for this chapter. So... please don't hate me for letting you wait this long... I really did try...

There... mandatory groveling finished.

Thanks a bunch for the encouraging reviews, I guess I'm now convinced that there is a market for a dark story within the CC fandom. Now I've seen that people didn't consider this dark, and you're absolutely right. It's not dark, and it won't be for a while (but I'll make up for that later). You'll just have to be patient.

Disclaimer: Just because they aren't mine doesn't mean I can't break them (insert maniacal grin)

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Antichrist

By Shnoosh

Chapter 2 – The New Guy

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'BAM BAM...'

"Mmmm..."

'BAM BAM BAM...'

"Go away..." The blonde girl murmured sleepily, diving deeper into the warm darkness that sheltered her.

'BAM BAM BAM BAM...

Shielding herself under the gentle force of the down filled cotton barrier. Hiding from the...

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM...'

Angrily she tossed the coverings off her. "STOP BREAKING THE DOOR JOSHUA!"

"THEN! GET! UP! We're gonna be late again!"

"ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT!" Grumbling something about human rights and sleeping requirements, the teenager threw her legs over the side of the bed and glared at the closed door. Her eyes turned towards the alarm clock which she apparently had managed to turn off in her sleep... again.

_'More than half an hour till the bus gets here . . .'_

It was plenty of time to get up, get a shower, get dressed , and get breakfast...

_'But If I skip breakfast . . . that'll save over five minutes . . . and I can just get something from the vending machine at school . . . so . . . actually . . . I can lie down five more minutes and I'll still have better time than if I got up now . . .'_

Convincing herself of the questionable logic behind that thought, Rosette dropped down onto the bed again protecting herself from the cruelty of the outside world with one of the things she loved most of all:

The duvet of her bed.

So soft...

and warm...

and comfy...

'BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM...'

The girl bolted up. "GODDAMMIT JOSHUA! KNOCK IT OFF! I said I was getting up!"

"Fifteen minutes ago! We're gonna miss the bus again!"

_'FIFTEEN?'_

She looked at the clock.

_'CRAP!'_

Rosette instantly jumped out of the bed...

Unfortunately her well-planned graceful leap was foiled by the sheet which in some inexplicable way had managed to catch a hold of her foot. Her momentum was halted and the girl was sent plummeting towards the floor.

'BONK!'

"Auww!"

"Rosette... what the hell are you doing in there?" Came the voice of her brother through the door.

"SHUT UP!" The girl rubbed her sore knee. "Have you nothing better to do than hover outside my door?"

"Not when we're about to be late for school unless _you_ come out of it right now!" Two seconds later the blond boy made a jump in surprise as the door in front of him sprang open, revealing his pajamas wearing older sister in all her glorious rage...

He immediately buckled over in laughter.

"SHUT! UP!" Rosette growled as she went past him. "It's not funny!"

"Oh... but you are soooo wrong, sister dearest." He literally beamed. "I mean you could pass for that creepy crawler which comes out out of the swamp at night..." Following after her towards the bathroom, his posture began to sag, his jaw hung low, and his face displayed the best zombified expression it could physically manage. "...and sliiiitherssssss into little children's bedroom at night and feeeeeedssssss on their braaaaaaaiiiiiinnnnnnsssss..."

Rosette spun around, trying to get her hopelessly mangled hair out of her eyes so she could give him a stare of death. "What does it take for you to SHUT! UP?"

"A bigger vocabulary?"

"OH SHU... Arrrggghhh!" The blonde turned away slamming the bathroom door in his face. Her action did a very poor job at removing his grin.

Approximately ten minutes later a very stressed looking Rosette dashed out of the bathroom and into her own room wearing only two towels – one for the body and one for the hair. She was in the middle of rummaging through her closet in a desperate search for clothes to wear when there was a knock on the door.

"Are you about ready?"

"I would be if you weren't interrupting all the time!" That remark suddenly made her feel a bit guilty... if it hadn't been for him she would probably still be sleeping and she would definitely miss her first class, at least she still had a chance now – and she was being a bit of a bitch. "How long 'till the bus gets here?" She asked in a bit calmer voice.

"Fifteen minutes."

_'Oh good then there's plenty of . . . HEY!' _She looked at her alarm clock... it only indicated five minutes worth of time.

Joshua gulped knowing what the ominous silence from the other side of the door meant.

"I kinda..." Two maniacally murderous blue eyes peered through the slightly ajar door. "...took the liberty of changing the time of your clock a bit I'msosorrypleasedon'tkillme!"

"You're dead... you know that?"

"I know..." He bit his lower lip and smiled meekly. "I just thought it would be nice for you not be in such a rush for a change..."

"Well... thanks... I guess... but I'm still gonna kill you for this someday."

"Alright... just... nothing gory like eating brains, ok? I like my brain where it is."

"Promise..." The blonde said as she went back into her room... even though the indignation still burned in her chest, it was a nice change to have time to do her hair properly and put on makeup. "But how about your heart... can I eat that?"

"Hmmm... dunno about that... how about my liver?"

"Urgh... don't like liver... I'd rather eat mom's cooking..." The blonde took out her favorite mascara – her mom really didn't like that sort of thing, but she would have to find out where Rosette stashed it away before being able to stop her from using it. "So why can't I eat your heart? Is it... because you've promised it to someone else?" She teased.

"No..." Now it was his turn to sound offended.

"OMIGOSH! Who is she?"

"Geez Rosette, I said no!"

"Mmmm... and you lied."

"I'm going downstairs to watch TV..." The boy obviously wanted to get out out of the conversation as quickly as possible.

"I'M GONNA FIND OUT!" The girl grinned.

_'And when I do . . .'_

There were just sooo many nice things she could blackmail him for...

X X X X X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X X X X

"Have you seen him?"

"Who... the new guy? Yeah... Daijmn!"

"You know where he's from?"

"I don't even know his name..."

"I heard he might be from Ireland."

"Who cares about his name or where he's from... he's fucking HOT!"

"From Fine-land!"

"You know it's called Finland... oh... I get it..."

"Oh... hi Rosette... don't you look well this morning?"

"Hi..." The blonde said rather unenthusiastically, as she gulped down a candy bar. Anna, Mary and Claire, her so-called friends, were standing in the hall next to their lockers, doing what they did best: Gossiping. "What's up?"

"There's a new guy in school..."

"He's just started today..."

"So...?" Rosette unwrapped the next candy bar.

"SO? He's God damn gorgeous in case you haven't heard!" Anna did not enjoy her piece of breaking news being brushed aside so easily.

"Yeah... he's from Fine-land..." Mary said grinningly.

"I already said that..." Claire retorted adding a muttered 'dimwit'.

"That's great I suppose..." Rosette really found it hard to get all that excited about some new guy having joined the school... it wasn't as if it would make headlines anyway. And something like this would always be grossly exaggerated by the three girls in front of her. They always got worked up over nothing, simply because that was about as much as there was to get worked up over.

God... it sucked to live in this town.

"Seriously Rosette... you have_ not _seen him yet... just wait until you do."

"What grade is he in?" Mary inquired.

"I think he's a senior."

"And therefore..." a haughty voice broke into the conversation. "Way out of your league girls." She was just passing by, but the blonde senior obviously felt the need to advocate her point of view. The older girl was every other girl's nightmare: Popular, beautiful, head of the cheerleaders and a sure bet for homecoming queen. Pretty much every female in school envied her, and every male wanted her.

Rosette hated her guts before she had ever met her.

"I would suggest you stick to _boys_ your own age, because this _man_ is already taken." With that self-confident remark the blonde turned around and walked down the hallway.

"God damn Mary..." The red haired girl grumbled.

"What? What'd I do?"

"Not you, airhead... her."

"I suppose I should get to class since I'm here on time for once..." Rosette turned to look at Mary who simply stared back at her in perplexity. "...you're blocking my locker."

"What? Oh... sorry." She quickly moved out of the way allowing Rosette to access her books.

"I need to get going too. So, what're you guys doing for lunch?"

"Dunno... probably just the school cafeteria."

A few mutually exchanged "see ya's" later they all began making their way to their respective classes. Rosette walked with her arms full of books, and attention deeply focused on her cell phone. She needed to get all the pictures sorted out. A lot were just trash, and some she needed to print out... maybe she could borrow a computer during lunch break... Mr. Gilliam who ran the computer science classes was pretty relaxed when it came to allowing her access to the...

_'WHOA!'_

Rosette almost fell on her ass, every book dropped to the ground, and she just barely managed to hold on to her cell. The person who had bumped into her was about to get a taste of a very sour temper.

"WHAT THE! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING, JERK!"

"Sorry..." The male voice apologized.

Diverting her attention from the cell phone, Rosette looked up to see the perpetrator, who had caused her to drop everything.

He was kneeling down in front of her.

"I'll get this for you."

Rosette found it hard to object. In fact she found it hard to do anything but just look. His hair was long, well-kept and dyed a strange shade of purple – not a bright-bubblegum artificial hue, but a toned down dark violet that, if she didn't know any better, almost could pass for a natural hair color. It was formed into a whip-like braid, dangling down to right of his face which was concealed by the fact that he was looking down. She had never seen a guy with hair even remotely resembling... at least not since... but no... couldn't be.

She found herself beginning to stare at the exposed skin of his neck... it was completely smooth revealing the defined shapes underneath... was that... muscles she could see...? Her eyes studied how his hands meticulously stacked one book atop the other before lifting the entire pile – slender, strong hands which could probably both play the piano and punch a hole in a wall.

He stood up again, handing over the stack of books to the blonde with a little smile.

Oh dear, sweet, merciful lord Jesus Christ in heaven and all that crap...

He...

was simply _not_ of this world.

His face was handsomely outlined with high cheekbones and smooth skin, it was defined and masculine yet still soft-looking and gentle, the smile on his lips could easily be that of a model – just without any fake sincerity – and his eyes...

His eyes were a color she had never seen before... rich dark maroon like the red-golden leaves of autumn, glistening in the sunlight after the rain... dropping down from the sky... boring into the back of her mind...

_'STOP ACTING LIKE A FUCKING MORON AND SAY SOMETHING!'_

"Uh... thanks..." Rosette reached for the books. "I'm sorry I yelled at you before... I didn't mean..."

"S'alright." He interrupted. "I could have paid more attention to where I was going, but I was just trying to find my class on this home-scribbled map."

She noticed the crude drawing in his hand. "You don't know where you're supposed to go?" Opportunity. "Let me look." Rosette moved a bit closer so she could look at the drawing... or hopefully he believed that was her intention... while she drew in a not-so-small sniff...

Yummy.

"I'm supposed to have astronomy right now, but I'm not sure where..."

"I know where that is." Rosette replied enthusiastically. "Miss Shader has that class. She's my algebra teacher... well her real name isn't really Shader, we just call her that..." _'ok... don't overdo it...'_

"Could you show me where that is on here? I don't think my map-reading skills will allow me to get there on time."

"I can take you there."

"You won't mind?"

Mind?

Would she mind?

Leading a virtual Adonis safely through the dark, dangerous corridors of Magdalene High?

Bloody hell no!

"Just follow me, I'll show you the way."

"Wait a sec..." She stopped as all of her books were snatched deftly from her arms. "If you're showing the way, I'll carry these."

"You want..." Rosette put on a speculative smile. "...to carry my books for me?"

"Hey... don't ask me why. I didn't make those rules, that's just the way it is." His face turned into a look of such profound innocence, that the blonde had no choice but to accept his offer. "By the way my name's Chris. Chris O'Connor."

"Rosette Christopher."

"Well whadya know. My first name is almost your last."

And Rosette couldn't help but smile a bit as she began leading him towards his classroom.

X X X X X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X X X X

First class...

soo...

sooooooo...

dull...

Rosette tried to focus her eyes towards the white screen. An oversized black shape of a pen danced back and forth up there in a never-ending shadow play of drowsiness. Supposedly it was indicating that which was important and that which was not. But really... it was no use. Just the effort of trying to decipher the words was somehow making a pin cushion of her poor tortured eyes... the letters displayed by the overhead projector had quite literally turned into a blurry war-of-insects a long time ago... perhaps even last century.

And the teacher was obviously from the same time period.

A time where everything went at a slower pace. Where you could stop up every now and then to smell the roses. Where you didn't have to be constantly stressed in order to be successful. Where you could take you sweet fucking time and drone through every God damn sentence with a monotony that rivaled the sound of a yawning whale...

If...

Whales could yawn that is...

Which they probably couldn't... considering that they breathed through a blowhole... and when you thought about it, it just didn't make sense... a yawning whale that is... because to yawn you would probably need all sorts of things that were missing like vocal chords and...

Her head dropped powerlessly into her arms with a low thud...

So! God! Damn! Boring!

The suppressed nasal chuckle coming from the front of the classroom indicated that the teacher had made a comment he obviously found witty himself.

Rosette tried looking up again. The screen now showed a new bug battlefield not much different from the last one. Well... except the Blacks seemed to be loosing to the Reds now... so supposedly that was new turn of events

There was a soft snore...

The guy to the left of her had succumbed.

American civics and government really wasn't the most exciting topic to begin with, but letting it be taught by a geezer who had been alive for a few centuries more than he was supposed to and on top of that had an unhealthy disposition for mixing vast amounts of sedatives and a bit of prozac – clearly seen from the witty remarks dropped every now and then – into his breakfast and you could easily put any medieval torture session to shame...

See...

_This_ was exactly why there was something called high school shootouts...

Not because of frustrations or low self esteem, anger, violent movies, music, video games or drugs...

Because people were bored out of their MINDS!

'Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...'

Rosette exhaled in relief.

Saved by the bell... ok... stupid line but right now it fit perfectly, and the teenager quickly began to gather her stuff, while the teacher said something about reading something... or something else. Honestly she couldn't care less even if she made an effort to.

Besides she needed to hurry.

Next class was algebra.

Not that algebra was any more fun than civics.

Algebra was hard, bothersome and completely useless... as if you needed to factor polynomials or solve systems of equations when you were out in the real world?

Algebra was just about as boring as civics... only harder.

Which was about as much good as she had to say about algebra.

But it was also miss Shader's class – and she had just finished up astronomy...

So if she hurried a bit...

She had already bolted out the door and was making her way hastily through the corridor...

_'Don't run... don't wanna seem like you've been in a hurry...'_

She slowed down, the halls were now beginning to fill up with people on their way to the next class, so running would be impossible anyway.

When she reached miss Shader's classroom, she was the first one there, and a few of the students from the earlier period were still gathering their stuff...

But no Chris.

Her heart sank a bit... and she felt stupid as she leaned against the wall in the hallway hugging her books.

It had been an idiotic idea anyway... what would she have accomplished if he was still here? What would she have said to him? He had probably already made friends in the class and would be busy talking to them...

And he _was_ a senior.

Rosette went inside and found her desk.

"You're early..." miss Shader chirped. "That's nice to see."

"Yeah well..." The teen mumbled without being able to construct a suitable response. She decided to lapse into silence and burrow her head in her arms instead.

She was still tired...

"Hey you..." Somebody shook her slightly.

Rosette raised her head and looked around. The class was almost full now... did she manage to fall asleep just like that? Hopefully she wasn't becoming narcoleptic – damn civics class, perhaps she should sue for having developed work- or school-related ailments.

Anna was sitting at her usual spot to the right of her. "Hey..." Rosette rubbed her eyes.

"I'm telling you." The redhead said in a hushed voice. "I caught a glimpse of the new guy again on my way over here and you really need to..."

"I've already met him." Rosette interrupted.

"You have?"

"Yeah, he couldn't find his first class so I showed him where it was." She smiled a bit on the inside. Now that was _the_ highlight of today.

"For real?" Anna's eyes widened a bit, and her voice began to hold a bit of jealousy. "You talked to him? What's he like?"

Rosette shrugged. "He's alright I guess..."

The comment was met with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm kidding..." The inner smile broke to the surface as the blonde burst out in a full-fledged one. "He's bloody amazing."

"Told ya..."

"You know. When I offered to show him his class he simply stole my books out of my hands so he could carry them."

"Didn't ask?"

"Nope, just said something about that's how things work... I mean... like I was going to argue?"

"So... he was being a gentleman?"

"Mmhmm..."

"Didn't think they made them like that anymore."

"Apparently they do."

"So... you think he was actually trying to flirt with you?"

"I'd like to think so..."

"Goooooodmoooooooorning class!" The ear-stabbing sound of miss Shader interrupted the hushed conversation and both girls returned to a more inconspicuous position.

"Well, I hope you are aaaall well-rested and have studied veeeery hard because as we all know... today is the biiiiiiiig day..."

Rosette frowned... partly because miss Shader's enthusiasm made her singsong voice even more off-key than usual and partly because she had little idea what said teacher was talking about.

"I will be handing out the tests now, and as usual I want noooo talking during the period. You will have exactly forty minutes to complete."

Rosette's eyes widened in unbridled panic as the short algebra teacher began walking around with the stack of papers in hand. "Why are we having this today?" She whispered to Anna. "We never have tests in the end of a month... We weren't supposed to have this until next week..."

"You mean you didn't know...?" Anna asked incredulously. "Have you forgotten that School's closed Monday because of All Saint's, so the test was moved to this week instead..."

"Oh crap..." Rosette replied brokenly.

"You know it's been posted for weeks and miss Shader told us as late as yesterday..."

"Please shut up..." She had just remembered that she did actually know about the test having been moved, but it had somehow slipped her mind. Hearing it from Anna didn't help one single bit, especially when she knew the girl was the competitive type and she would probably manage to rub it in whether she meant to or not.

"I'm gonna fail..." She whimpered. Shortly thereafter the paper with all the 'exes' and 'whys' in urgent need of solving where placed in front of her, and Rosette felt her world sink into despair.

X X X X X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X X X X

"I think it went alright though..."

"I didn't think it was _that _difficult."

"Wow, you didn't...? Isn't honor's algebra much harder than regular? I thought it was really hard, but I studied a lot for it so I think it went OK... but I don't know really... How about yours Rosette? How did it go?"

"Meh..." Rosette sat looking at her half-finished sandwich. Normally she would have eaten all of it by now, but that cursed test had also managed to kill her appetite. She had stayed out of the conversation so far as she didn't feel like talking about it... having pulled almost half of her hair out during the class was quite enough for her... she wasn't a masochist after all.

"Rosette didn't study for it..." Anna helped by answering the question.

_'Thanks a lot bitch . . .' _Rosette shot the red haired girl a glare she hoped was telepathic... in a really, really hurtful sort of way.

"Wow... Really? That's really brave... or stupid... or..." Mary began, apparently without being able to formulate what was in her head... or maybe, Rosette thought, she formulated exactly what was in there...

Hence the silence.

"I forgot about All Saint's, so I thought we would get it Monday, OK? Can we skip the subject now?" The blonde teen growled.

"Oh gosh...that's really bad... I always write down things like that so I won't forget them." Mary continued. "I mean if I hadn't studied for it, I would definitely have failed, because I'm not that good at math..."

Rosette hid her head in her hands as the blonde girl continued to blabber. Why was being oblivious not on the list of mortal sins?

"Hey." Anna interrupted. "About Halloween, what're you guys dressing up as on Sunday?"

"That's a secret." Mary replied looking very enthusiastic.

"Oh... _do_ tell..." Claire rolled her eyes.

"OK... I'm gonna go as Elizabeth from Pirates of the Caribbean, I have this really cool pirate costume at home..."

"You know... she's not really a pirate she's a governor's daughter who's... arh... never mind... how about you Rosette?"

Rosette raised her head again at the sound of her name. "...huh..."

"What're you dressing up as for the costume party?"

"Something with horns maybe..."

"...and bat wings..."

"...and goat hooves..."

"...and a spiked tail..."

"...and perhaps a pitchfork..."

"What... what... _what_?" Rosette's head turned erratically back and forth, her gaze shifting between the other girls. "Where does all _that_ come from?"

"What... you don't know?" Anna said a bit puzzled. "I thought you did."

"Know what?"

"...word is that you... how am I gonna put this..." Anna said in a hushed toned. "...you... sort of... worship the devil..."

Rosette stared wide-eyed at the red-haired gossiper.

"Is it true?" Mary asked with her usual over-zealousness. "I mean... I always thought that devil-worshipers were evil, but maybe they're not, and are you doing rituals, because I don't know if I really like that even though I kinda think it's a bit exciting and..."

Rosette's lower jaw dropped as the other blonde rambled on, before she finally found her voice again. "Waitwaitwaitwait... who the hell's saying this?" Her eyes had hardened and were now thoroughly scrutinizing the other three girls.

"Uhm..." Anna began not really able to finish the sentence.

"It's just a rumor..." Claire said, her voice even and calm. "...I think your sister said something about you spending a lot of time in your room with the door locked... that's how it got started... but there's nothing to it."

_'Of course . . . Azmaria . . .' _Rosette thought with not just a bit of venom. Whether she intended to or not, her half-sister _always_ managed to make her look bad. "And just because of that you all just concluded that I was worshiping the bleeding devil... is that it?"

This town sucked SO MUCH!

"Well... no... not really... but..." Anna tried to respond. The other two girls looked a bit sheepish, they clearly knew it had all been far-fetched.

"Well, for your information." Rosette said angrily. "I _do _spend time alone in my room, though I don't see how that is a crime. No I do _not_ worship any devil and I don't intend to dress up as one for the... oh no!" Her hands gripped her head, and her eyes widened in panic.

"What's the matter?" Mary asked.

"When my mom finds out that I've flunked the test, she's gonna ground me!"

"Oh... that's not good..." Anna said. "Can't you just... keep it a secret?"

"She doesn't have a job..." Rosette whimpered. "_I'm _her bleeding job so she's gonna find out even if I don't tell her... and then I can't go..." Her head dropped onto her arms. "It's not fair..."

Today was simply getting worse and worse.

X X X X X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X X X X

That evening Rosette didn't eat much for dinner. Joshua had obviously had a good day as seen by his mood, but then again he never seemed to get very depressed. Azmaria appeared happy too, and it annoyed Rosette to no end. Afterwards Rosette didn't feel much like socializing so she went straight upstairs – at least it wasn't her turn to do the dishes.

She decided a good way to get some time alone was to take a bath – perhaps the warm water would bring her an ounce of comfort. She spent the bath trying to think up a way to relay the news of the failed test to her mom that wouldn't get her grounded this weekend, but no bright ideas occurred. Her train of thought kept being diverted because of what Anna had said today.

_'Devil-worshiper . . .'_

Great brand to get in this town – there were probably even people here who would want to burn her at the stakes if they suspected it to be true. And if the word ever reached her mom's ears the lock on her door would definitely be removed... her stuff would be searched through... and she'd be grounded for... forever most likely... that was assuming she didn't discover the pentagram. Trying to confront Azmaria about her rumor-mongering would do her no good since the girl could easily proclaim her innocence. Besides it would carry a high risk of alerting her mom, so it was better just to let it slide.

Rosette finished her bath, dressed up in a towel and went to her room, locking the door. She sat down on the bed looking at the large rug in the middle of the room covering the floor and the symbol painted on it.

What did _they_ know?

She went to get the candles from the drawer before rolling up the rug to expose the red pentagram. As she lit the candles she glanced over the pictures on her desk, that she had printed out at school today. One was taken as recently as this morning. It showed a purple-haired senior on his way to his first class. She had just managed to take it when he had walked through the door – and he never even noticed. She picked it up with a little longing smile, letting her thumb brush across the image softly before putting it down again.

What did _anybody_ know about her?

The blonde carried the candles towards the diagram, placing them in the usual manner. She killed the lights before tossing the towel on the bed and kneeling down amidst the softly shining lights.

_'Let them talk all they like . . .'_

Rosette closed her eyes as she came to sit resting her upper body on her heels in the center of the pentagram. Her hands placed on her bare thighs. Her mind emptying. Her thoughts trying to focus on only one thing...

Sunday...

_'Goddammit!'_

Why did she keep thinking about that?

Just because everyone else was going... and she wasn't now...

The club had been having this event for some years now... throwing a costume party around Halloween where they didn't serve alcohol and lowered the entry age to 16. It was the ONLY thing there was to do around here at her age... and it would have been her first time going clubbing – she had looked forward to it for WEEKS! And now because of some stupid, idiotic test she would miss out on everything while everyone else was going to have fun...

Rosette struck the floor in anger...

_'Auuu . . .'_

Her other hand quickly covered her mouth to muffle her cry, as tears began to sting her eyes.

A thumbtack had embedded itself in the palm of her hand – all the way to the head. What the hell was a thumbtack doing on the floor anyway...?

Rosette winced as she pulled out the little metal pin drawing out blood with it. Angrily she threw the tack across the room. Not the smartest move since she had little idea where it was now, and it had probably landed head-down again.

Blood exuded slowly from the pinprick, running down the palm of her hand. Rosette sucked up the excess blood on the hand – she needed a paper towel.

She looked at the lit candles around her. She couldn't do this tonight... not when she kept thinking about that stupid party.

Another drop of blood trickled out of her palm.

All because she had to fail a test.

It ran down her palm and landed on the floor.

Why couldn't she just have done good on it?

With a sigh of abandonment the blonde began blowing out the candles again. She left one lit allowing her to still see, and went towards her desk. There were some napkins that proved adequate in stopping the blood. As she nursed her hand, her gaze went towards the pictures and was once again stolen by the one of Chris.

He would probably also be going to the club...

Rosette uttered an annoyed grunt as she extinguished the last candle, before heading for her bed. She crawled under the duvet not bothering to get in her pajamas, hoping that she could somehow just sleep it all away.

It wasn't even that late...

Stupid test.

* * *

And that's the second chapter. I'm not really satisfied with it, since I feel that it doesn't flow as well as I would have liked it to, but I've spent enough time on this chapter already and I need to get it out of the way if I'm supposed to get further with this story.

So thanks for reading, if you have any suggestions, comments or just want to say what you think about the chapter then press the little review button (and make an 'author' happy).


	3. The Summer School Boy

Author excuses:

Uhm... hi.

Damn I knew I told somebody that I definitely wouldn't keep you guys waiting several months for another chapter... wow guess I blew that one, sorry. Kinda makes me think of a Douglas Adams quote: I love deadlines, I like the whooshing sound they make as the fly by.

Well I certainly got my share of 'whooshings' with this story, but anyway... here's the update that some of you have been waiting for... well... technically everyone who's reading this story has been waiting for an update... you might have done other things while waiting but you've still been... arh shut up already.

* * *

Antichrist

By Shnoosh

Chapter 3 – The Summer School Boy

* * *

Rosette winced.

This was torture – plain and simple.

Normally she didn't mind the teacher's slow pace – giving each student a few words along with the returned papers. This time however, it only served to drag out the sinking feeling in her midsection. She knew what was coming.

Mary had gotten hers back and was whining across the room about having to do make-up credits. Anna was frowning slightly at her own, the number '73' written with a red marker in the upper right corner of the first page.

Not exactly the signs Rosette had hoped for.

"You don't have to say anything... I know, I..." Rosette began as miss Shader approached her chair and handed back her test.

"Why so glum?" The algebra teacher chirped. "You should be proud of yourself, you've improved a lot... I always knew you had it in you."

And Rosette was speechless.

All she could do was stare blankly at the number written with the red marker in the upper right corner of the test.

'89'

"I... almost got an A?" The blonde girl turned to look at the short teacher.

"Why yes... you did very good this time. You still overlook parentheses from time to time and there's a few other of what I could call your 'trademark errors'." The teacher put on a chirpy grin, the kind normally reserved for an overzealous aunt talking gibberish to her sister's baby. "...but clearly you have been studying hard and have improved a lot, and your grade reflects that... I'm really proud of you, congratulations."

"Thanks..." Rosette managed to say, earning herself another smile from the teacher who proceeded to pass out the next test.

Her eyes scoured over both the multiple choice and the exercise questions, her hands flipped through the pages with a fervor she had never had before in a math class.

Every page was filled with little red check marks indicating questions answered correctly – questions she couldn't even remember having done. But it _was_ her handwriting, and apparently also – as the teacher had said – her 'trademark' errors. But the errors were generally few and far in between, the 'rights' vastly outnumbering the 'wrongs'.

Rosette suppressed a giggle.

"How did it go?" Anna asked with a hint of distrust – she had apparently noticed Rosette's reaction upon receiving her test.

"I got a B." The blonde replied grinningly.

"What? How did you do that? You said you didn't study."

"I didn't... and I dunno how I did it... but I did!"

"Lemme see..." The red haired demanded – her tone less than pleased.

Rosette happily complied and handed her test to Anna, feeling a distinct satisfaction when she saw the deepening frown on the other girl's face as she too flipped through the pages.

"I don't get it..." Anna murmured.

"Perhaps..." Rosette stretched her arms lazily. "...I'm just smart like that." That comment earned her a glare she did not mind getting at all.

Her smile widened as she realized what this also meant.

Now, she would be going to that party after all.

X X X X X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X X X X

Lunchtime was the same as always...

Today the cafeteria had some sort of meat-ground-beyond-identification smelling suspiciously like the start of a pandemic as 'dish of the day'. Nicely served with a side order of stale bread... well antibiotics _were_ essentially a mold so perhaps the bread served to act as an inhibitor...

Rosette frowned at the poor selection and grabbed a pre-made sandwich which didn't look too 'weathered' – why couldn't they just get an IHOP?

"So... anything worth eating here?"

YIKES!

Her breath immediately got caught in her throat, her heart skipped a beat – or two – before returning to its designated task with a vengeance.

Standing right behind her in the line, inspecting the edibles with an inquisitive look, was the very same senior whom she'd helped to class the day before yesterday. In a short-sleeved red shirt, dark jeans, tall, tan, lean and looking too God damn fine for his own good.

Three small words popped up in her head and kept rummaging through it making her think she was going crazy, three one-syllable words that begged to be voiced in response, and she was just about as close to saying them as one can without actually making a sound.

But honestly.

How could replying 'now there is' be considered anything but slutty?

So she resigned to just talking about the food. "Not really..."

"Rosette..." He said in a slightly surprised tone as he turned to look at her. "Rosette Christopher... right?"

The blonde teenager cranked up a huge giggly grin on the inside, doing everything humanly possible to not let it reach her face – he remembered her... and her name. "Yup..." God, she wished she could have come up with a better response than that.

"You know, I never got to thank you for taking me to class the other day, so..." He flashed a smile. "Thank you."

"Oh... It's nothing." She said returning the smile.

"But it is... if you hadn't shown me the way, I'd most likely still be walking aimlessly around, trying to figure out how to get anywhere... and I'm being very serious here, I would probably have gotten hopelessly lost, and two weeks later the paper would have a 'boy dies of starvation trying to look for class' article... you know... down at the bottom... and a bit to the right... to make room for the headline of 'local poodle wins regional canine beauty contest'."

Rosette suppressed a laugh. "I guess, I saved your life then?" Oi... why did she like the sound of that so much.

He pulled out a ham&cheese sandwich, the lettuce in it had clearly seen better days and he greeted it with a frown. "Hmm... I'm not sure how grateful I'm supposed to be... considering the alternatives here, starving might actually have been the easy way out."

The line moved a bit more forward. "So how come you're eating here? Don't you have a car?"

"Hah... I don't even have a driver's license yet... had to turn 17 before I could even start getting one, and frankly I never needed a car until I moved here." He put the sandwich back. "But I'll be getting one soon, along with a GPS so I don't wind up in the middle of a desert when trying to find my way to Blockbuster."

"You know." She tilted her head askew, looking at him with feigned suspicion. "I thought guys were supposed to have a good sense of direction."

"You believe that?" He asked as he inspected a few more sandwiches. "Hell, we just made that shit up so we had a legit reason not to ASK for directions... even after we've gotten lost." He finally decided on one that seemed less aged than the rest and began searching for some beverage. "They need to get some Jolt here... I could really go for a cherry bomb right now."

"They don't have that, just the regular boring kind." Rosette voiced her agreement as she moved to the cash register.

"That is such an enormous mistake..." He grabbed a cherry coke. "...I mean, I'm still in 'drone mode' after my history class, and if it continues like this I'll be comatose before the end of the year."

She couldn't help giggling slightly as she fished out her purse... he really was easy to talk to... and he made her laugh... and was so bloody good looking... oh man, this was getting really, really bad. "Who's your teacher?"

"Mr. Winham."

"No way! He's my civics teacher."

"Oh God... poor, poor you..." The violet-haired answered in a semi-jokingly voice, but his words were still laced with a very sincere sympathy. "...that guy really needs to lay off the Valium, I don't care HOW antsy, nervous and tense he might be. The amount of medication he's obviously taking can not be healthy for any human being."

Rosette moved out of the way, carrying her tray with the sandwich and Dr Pepper, allowing Chris to access the clerk. "And his slides..." She commented. "I mean, I don't think anybody can even read those things. What's up with that?"

"I can honestly say, I have no idea..." He payed for his meal and began walking a bit away from the counter to allow for others to spend their money. "I doubt he can read them himself."

"Hey... by the way..." Rosette asked as she remembered her success in the algebra test. "Are you coming this Sunday?"

"What's happening Sunday?"

"You don't know? The Liquid Room is hosting a costume party where minors are allowed in, I think practically the whole school is going."

"Hmm... I should go then."

"Yeah, you should."

As they continued walking side by side, Rosette was suddenly aware that they might even eat lunch together. Just the very simple words of 'wanna come sit with us' would be enough, and it was easily interpreted as no more than a friendly gesture – just an act of welcoming a new guy to the school. "So..."

"Chris."

God damn sonuva... Rosette knew that voice...

Mary!

"Are you seriously considering eating here? I mean the food is awful. Me and some friends are going to Denny's, and we're wondering if you'd like to come with us."

DIE BITCH!!

"Well..." He looked at his sandwich. "I already paid..." Rosette's hopes rose. "...but hell, who cares. Rosette here, you can have my sandwich." And plummeted miserably again as he took the cafeteria lunch and put it on her tray. He put his own tray down on a table, only taking the cherry coke with him, before turning towards the sophomore one last time. "Well, I suppose I'll see ya... if not sooner then Sunday... and thanks again for the help the other day."

"Yeah... See ya..." The blonde girl replied in the cheeriest voice she could muster, trying to hide the extreme disappointment as well as the murderous hate that was tearing her apart inside. She couldn't help casting a little glance after the two seniors as they walked out of the school cafeteria towards the parking lot – Mary didn't even as much as give her a second look. And Rosette couldn't even blame him for going with her. Eating ANYWHERE else was a vast improvement compared to here... and Mary had a car... and she was popular... and had lots of friends...

And all SHE had was a stupid tray with two stupid sandwiches...

This was so UNFAIR!

If the room had been empty, she would have let all the bottled up anger escape through tears and the demolishment of school property, but she already had the nauseating feeling that everyone's eyes were directed at her... looking at her thunderous fiasco.

So instead of making herself even more publicly humiliated than she already felt, she just walked towards where Anna, Claire and Mary sat, and took a seat, opposite of the two first mentioned girls and next to the last.

"You... little... devil..." Anna said in a teasing voice, one not entirely devoid of envy either.

"What?" Rosette asked.

"Oh come on... I saw you talking to him up there... you practically looked like you knew each other..."

"Yeah well..." That did lift her spirits a tiny bit. But only for a tiny moment... dammit why did everything just feel tiny right now. "Then I suppose you saw the rest too..."

"We did..." Claire said. "...and we knew you didn't stand a chance when she came in."

OK... now Rosette was just about to commit murder.

"Oh stop it." Anna continued. "You don't need to remind her that everyone saw how he chose her..."

Wait, make that two... extremely brutal, nasty, gory, torturous...

"Listen, I was just talking to him OK!" Rosette shot back. "I mean, what makes you even think that he was gonna eat lunch with us anyway?"

The word 'us' hit straight home, and the two girls sitting opposite of her immediately underwent a change of expression when they realized that he could actually have been sitting right here.

"You're right..." Anna said as she poked her salad before adding. "Bloody Mary..."

"Whuh?" The name-sister asked with her mouth full of unidentified ground beef, which her attention and plastic fork had been previously immersed in.

The three other girls groaned.

X X X X X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X X X X

"Hey... what's wrong? You've been really quiet the whole evening" Joshua asked, lying on the couch, zapping casually through the channels.

"Nothing... I'm just in a bit of a bad mood that's all." Rosette replied stirring her hot chocolate with a plastic spoon – they should get more things out of plastic – minimize the dish washing.

"OK..." He switched the channel a few more times. "Man... there's never anything on... I want pay-per-view..."

"Perv." Rosette retorted as she brought the hot, sweet liquid to her mouth.

"Very funny Rosette... you know that's not what I meant." He replied indignantly. "And stop smiling at me like that you know that... GODDAMMIT, will you stop it!"

Rosette simply kept smiling as her brother became increasingly red in the head. This was just too much fun – and exactly what she needed. Joshua might not have been thinking it before, but he was most certainly thinking it now – teenage boys were so easy like that...

At least those who were younger than her...

Joshua had increased his zapping speed in an apparent search for anything to occupy his mind.

"Hey Rosette?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you seen the new guy at school?"

Arh hell... not again! How was it that everything managed to revolve around him now... It was bad enough that he was constantly buzzing around in her head, did he have to pop up everywhere else now? "Yeah... so what?"

"It's just." He put the remote down, the channel stuck on some generic makes-no-difference sitcom. "Do you remember the time we went to summer school... 4 years ago?"

"Yeah..."

"Doesn't he remind you a bit of him... I mean the hair?"

"Yeah... I suppose he does..."

X X X X X X X X X X X X

Flashback

X X X X X X X X X X X X

"Joshua!!" The twelve-year-old girl cried, as she burst through the door. There were five beds in the all-boys room and all save one was empty. "Joshua! Get up! We're going to the lake today to go swimming, it's gonna be so much fun! Everyone else is ready!"

"Leave me a-cough-alone." The boy managed to express in a strained voice. "I don't wan..." The sentence was cut short by a coughing fit. It made him curl into fetal position with his face towards the wall.

"Joshua?" The girl asked with worry in her voice. "You're not sick again are you? Today was going to be so fun!"

"We-well I-I'm sorry..." He sneered. "To ruin yo-ough-your day... I-I'll try... not to... ough-ough do it ag-again..."

"Joshua!" The girl responded, clearly hurt. "That was mean!"

"T-ough-ough..." He retorted. "It's no-not... yough-you whough-cough... sick..." He crept further under the coverings hiding from the girl.

"Joshua? Do you want me to get someone?"

"No... cough..."

"What about water? Do you want some water?"

"No!"

"I can stay if you want..." She reached for him.

"NO! Cough... j-just... go ha-have fun... just leav-ough-leave me... alone..." He moved towards the wall – away from her hand, nearly wincing from her touch, hiding under the cover so she couldn't see him – couldn't look at his sick, weak face with her lively, healthy one... "Le-ough-leave... m-me ALONE! St-tupid co-ough-ow..."

The girl's mouth began quivering... her eyes filled with water, and a few seconds after she ran out of the room with tears running down her cheeks.

She didn't even go find the adults so they could check on him – just ran out of the countryside building in the opposite direction of where everyone else was.

Stupid Joshua!

Just cause he was sick didn't mean he could be so mean...

Stupid Joshua!

She was only trying to be nice to him...

Stupid Joshua!

She ran through the woods as the droplets poured from the corners of her eyes, towards her chin, and onto the ground which went by rapidly beneath her feet. Two trails of viscous transparent fluid ran from her nose, she wiped them off with her sleeve.

For how long she ran, she couldn't remember. At some point she just found herself standing in a little clearing – too exhausted to run any more. She dropped to the ground.

"What's the matter?" A voice asked.

"Huh..." The girl said rather stupified, looking up again. "Who said that?"

"I did..." From the edge of the clearing came forth a boy. He couldn't be older than her, perhaps he was even younger... about Joshua's age...

Stupid Joshua!

He looked nothing like him though.

He was dressed in some sort of blanket... the types Indians wear... she couldn't remember the name... pom-something... He was tan compared to Joshua's pale skin and didn't look quite so thin. He had long hair that went to the middle of his back... it was... purple? He looked at her intently and she suddenly began shivering... his eyes... they were completely... Red!

"Who-who're you?" She studdered.

"I'm just someone living off the land..." He replied as he gave her a smile. "Who are you?"

"I'm..." She stood up, her voice quavering. "...uhm... my name is Rosette, I'm just here for the summer school at Seventh Bell..." She pointed in the direction she had come from.

"If you are..." The boy came closer. "Then why are you out here?"

"I..." She began but choked on her own words as tears began springing forth again. "...my brother is sick... he's coughing... and he said something mean to me... so I ran..." She remembered him coughing. "I have to tell somebody!"

"Wait!" The boy called out just as she was about to leave. "You said he is sick?"

"Yes."

"And only you know that he is?"

"Well... the adults knows he's not well all the time... they have some medicine for him... I'm not allowed to give it to him... it's prescription." She didn't know why she was stalling, or why she was telling this boy these things.

"But does anybody but you know that he is sick _now_?" The purple-haired inquired.

"Uhmm... well the ones who sleep in the same room should know since he didn't come out of bed when they did..."

"And would the adults go to check on him, since he has not gotten out of bed?"

"Uhmm..." She knew the answer to that question. They would. Especially since the other boys had told he was still in bed, and she had said she was going to get him up. When she wasn't coming back they would check on him... in fact, there was probably already an adult on his way in, even before she ran off.

"I still have to go back."

"Of course you do." The red-eyed boy replied. "Can I just show you something first?"

"What?"

"It's just over here." He began leading the way towards where he had come from, and she followed cautiously. She knew she shouldn't speak with strangers, her mom had said so herself. But this was just a boy, and he didn't seem dangerous to her – even though he did have very strange eyes and hair...

"Here it is." He said pointing at a figure etched onto a large flat stone situated beneath a dense tree.

"THAT'S A DEVIL SYMBOL!!" The girl shrieked – terrified. "IT'S EVIL!!" The boy suddenly burst out laughing, making Rosette extremely self-conscious. He wasn't laughing in any evil manner, more like she'd just told a joke. "Ehh..." She obvoiusly didn't know what to say.

"Who told you that?" He asked appearing mystified more than anything else.

"My mom..." She answered.

"OK... wait a sec..." He went towards one of the trees, broke off a branch and went back to the blonde girl. "I'm going to trace something in the soil, so watch closely."

Rosette did as he said, she couldn't say why she wasn't already on her way back to the summer school – something about the boy made her trust him and with an interested look she studied the drawing in the grass.

First a horizontal line.

Then an equal length vertical line through the middle of the other, making it look like a 'plus'.

Then four lines going perpendicular from the four ends of the 'plus', as if he was drawing a square around it but omitting one half of each side.

"Do you know what this is?" He asked.

"Yeah..." She answered. "...it's the Nazi-symbol."

"No it isn't." He replied with a knowing smile, apparently this was what he had expected.

"This is called a Swastika. And it is a left-faced one. To make it into the one used by the Nazi's you would have to mirror it, making it a right-faced one, and then turn it 45 degrees. This... is a symbol which is used in both Hindu and Buddhist religion. In Buddhism, as a left-faced one it represents love and mercy, as a right faced it represent strength and intelligence. The Finnish had it as a symbol for their air force until the year 1945, and in the early years of flight it was often worn by pilots as a good luck charm. There is a region... a small country if you will which has this symbol in their flag. To them it represents the octopus that created the world, the four arms in the symbol represent the four parts of the sky created by this octopus."

The stick was brought in touch with the symbol now.

"The sun... The moon... The stars... And the rainbow."

As he explained what the swastika's four arms represented he let the stick circle the figure in a clockwise motion.

"In the 1920's this symbol was adopted by the German movement commonly known as the Nazis, they meant for it to signify something about their ancestors and the purity of their race. Because of the country's aggressiveness, and the subsequent world war, everybody in the western world now associates it with the evil represented by this totalitarian regime and the racial intolerance it advocated. However, the symbol itself had been used for many years before by humans all across the earth, and yet due to this stand-alone historical event, all those years are forgotten in favor of this single interpretation." He smiled at the girls expression, she was staring wide-eyed at the Swastika, as if she was seeing it in a whole new light.

"You can even say..." He continued. "...that the western world has involuntarily given the man a power after his death they never wished for him to have. By allowing him to solely dictate the definition of this particular symbol despite that for thousands of years other cultures around the world credited it with a different meaning. The question is: Is the symbol in itself evil?"

"I don't know..."

"Why do you think I showed you this?"

"Because... you're saying..." Rosette bit her lower lip, thinking about where all this was leading to. "...that this symbol has lots of different meanings... which means the other symbol has other meanings too?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying." The red-eyed boy smiled at her, well-pleased that she had managed to get on his train of thought.

"So why did you want to show me this? What does it mean?" She asked with a hint of annoyance. He had already kept her for quite a while and now she wanted some answers.

"This symbol." He went towards the pentagram that was carved into the stone, it was a large 5-pointed star inside two circles. Strange non-roman letters were inscribed between the inner and outer circle, one next to each of the star's points. There were holes into the flat stone right next to each letter, about half an inch wide.

"It did not become associated with the devil until the twentieth century, why it did is hard to say but a misinterpretation of symbols used by ceremonial magicians could be the cause. Later the symbol was rejected by the whole Christian church as being the sign of the devil. It was taken up by many semi-religious groups who either claimed to worship the devil or just wanted to distance themselves from the church."

Rosette looked at the diagram on the stone... it did look pretty harmless, and it actually had a somewhat aesthetic appeal to her.

"There are of course numerous interpretations of the symbol, some thinks it represents the four classical elements along with the element of spirit, but what is more interesting, is that it symbolizes a lot of things within the realm of Christianity."

The girl returned her eyes to the boy who had somehow captured her attention completely with his tale of symbols.

"In medieval times, Christians believed the symbol represented the five wounds of Jesus Christ as he died on the cross, for nobles it also represented virtues of knighthood along with other positive traits. The most interesting interpretation however is the original meaning of the symbol, the one it had in the very early years of Christianity."

He touched the stick to one of the foreign letters.

"With these five letters inscribed it represented the five senses of the human body."

He moved the stick towards one of the stars points – the one pointing away from the two kids.

"Sight..."

The stick circled the figure clockwise to the next point of the star.

"...hearing..."

And further clockwise to the bottom right.

"...taste..."

To the bottom left one.

"...touch..."

And finally to the last point in the star completing the ring.

"...and smell."

The boy put the stick down again before continuing the narration. "It could sometimes be depicted with a human inside it, the head, arms and legs occupying each of the star's points to further clarify that since the individual points of the star represented the senses, the star as a whole really was a symbol for the human body. And since it was a perfect symmetric figure without flaws or errors it was the symbol of the human body in pristine condition... or, if you will... of human health."

"A symbol of human health..." Rosette whispered.

"Yes, it was used in rituals to cure, prevent or lessen diseases."

"But... how is that supposed to work... I mean it's just a star within two circles."

The purple haired boy chuckled slightly. "Tell me... when you came here first, did you believe that this was a symbol for the devil, that it was evil, that it was used to summon fiends?"

"Uhm... yes..."

"Because your mother had once told you that?"

"Yes..."

"Now when you know that the symbol really is something else entirely... that it has only gotten its present significance due to misinterpretations made within the last one hundred years... is it that hard to believe that the original meaning of the symbol holds a power of its own?"

"Well... uhm..."

"Do you believe in Jesus?" He asked in a curious voice.

"What? Yes... of course I do." Rosette answered hurriedly.

"And do you believe that he cured the sick? Healed the blind? Made the paralyzed walk again?"

"Yes!" She replied adamantly.

"And you know that when he rose from his grave, before he ascended to heaven he taught something to his disciples."

"That's right!" The girl agreed, she had heard about this a lot of times in church, and she did believe it.

"Then could it not be that one of the things he taught them was this? Could it not be that before he departed this world, he would bestow upon his human followers – beings of a race he cherished above all else – the knowledge to save their brethren from the horrors of disease and disability, even if it was to a lesser degree than what he himself was capable of. Is it that hard to believe that he granted them a divine tool for just this purpose? That he granted them this symbol?"

Rosette stood for a few seconds looking completely mesmerized at the symbol in the stone, a vision of Joshua entered into her mind... coughing... writhing... dying.

"Tell me how it works!"

X X X X X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X X X X

"Joshua!" The 12-year-old girl called from outside the room. It was early morning and most people weren't up yet, but she couldn't sleep anymore.

A boy opened the door. "He's not here."

"Where is he, Billy?" She demanded.

"I dunno, he just went out, I dunno where. I'm just glad he's not here so we don't have to listen to his whining..."

"You say that again and you're dead."

"Geez... calm down..."

Rosette suppressed her anger, diverting her attention to the floor instead. "So you really don't know where he is?"

The boy leaned against the door, seemingly about to collapse. "No. I don't. You can check in here if you want."

"Doesn't matter."

Billy glanced at her for a few seconds, apparently the girl had entered stasis. "Uhm... I'm like... really tired, so I'm gonna go to sleep again, if you don't mind."

Rosette didn't say anything, just spun around on her heel and proceeded to search for Joshua, perhaps he was raiding the fridge... that would be her choice of action.

He wasn't.

And he wasn't anywhere inside the Seventh Bell building.

She became increasingly nervous as she scoured the surrounding yard, not finding him outside the building, nor in the playground, nor...

"JOSHUA!!"

The scream pierced through the early morning air like a spear through a silk drape.

But only her echo came as a response – that and a sour voice belonging to Billy saying 'shut up'.

A dreadful fear rose in her chest.

That boy.

He could have lied...

He could have tricked her...

_'Oh no . . . Joshua . . .'_

She immediately began running, heart hammering in her chest, breath quickened with fright and the labor of running as fast as her small legs could take her...

_'Oh God no . . .'_

What had she DONE?

She came to the clearing, he wasn't there.

She ran on to the edge of the clearing, to the big flat stone with the symbol inscribed, the burnt sticks of wood were still situated in the holes next to each of the letters. The purple haired boy was sitting next to the large tree.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?" Rosette screamed.

As the red-eyed turned his head to face her, another head popped out from behind the tree. That of a blond boy with blue eyes. "Rosette?"

"Joshua!"

"What are you doing here?"

"What are YOU doing here?"

"Well..." Joshua began. "I felt really good this morning, so I wanted to go for a walk, and before I knew it, I was here... you know, he's got the most fantastic stories!"

The Indian-clad boy smiled at the praise.

"You could have told me!" Rosette retorted angrily. "It's really inconsiderate to... wait... you said you felt... good?"

"Yeah... all of a sudden the whole coughing and fever just went away for no reason at all!" He exclaimed enthusiastically as he stood up. "I feel better than I've felt in months, my chest almost doesn't hurt anymore."

The blonde girl sniffed as she went over to him, her eyes turning watery. "I-is it true? You really feel good." She was practically on the verge of tears now.

"It's true... I don't know why... it's almost like... magic."

"I'm so... I'm so glad..." The girl said as a droplet trickled out of her left eye, her nose began to run a bit and she quickly wiped it in her sleeve.

"You know, I'm really sorry about yesterday, I was just so upset that I got sick again, and I felt that everyone was going to go out and have fun except me and..."

"It's OK..." Rosette responded, shaking her head. "...it's all OK... everything... everything is gonna be OK now..."

"I think so too... hey..." he addressed the boy in the poncho. "Thanks for the stories, but I think we'd better head back now before everyone gets even more worried."

"Alright." The boy answered standing up next to the two siblings.

"You coming Rosette?"

"You just go ahead, I'll be there in a second."

"Oh... kay?" He said a bit mystified at her reluctance to leave, but seeing that she didn't intend to leave with him he sighed and headed back towards the summer school.

When Joshua had left the blonde girl turned to face the purple haired boy. Tears were now streaming freely down her cheeks, she practically lunged forward, crashed into the him, wrapped her arms about his body and buried her head in his shoulder as she sobbed uncontrollably. "Thank you..."

"Thank you..."

"Thank you..."

Was all she could manage to say.

"Hey, it's ok." He pushed her away looking into her glittering blue eyes with his warm crimson gaze. "You should go back so they don't become worried about you too."

"Yes... I just... thank you so much..."

"By the way this is for you." He handed her a piece of cloth.

"What is it?" She looked at it, there were some symbols inscribed on it.

"They're the letters from the pentagram, along with numbers for the radius of the inner and outer circle in inches. Just remember, the more symmetrical, the better the effect. Inscribe the first letter at the point of the star you're facing when you're sitting in it, and inscribe the others in clockwise order."

"But..." She sniffed. "...he said he was much better now..."

"Yes... and with your help, he can stay that way."

"But... I don't have any wooden sticks, and I haven't got a stone, and..."

He chuckled a bit. "It's the symbol that's important... not the material, and fire is fire... you can use candles on top of the letters."

"Oh... mom's not gonna like this..."

"Your mom might not understand."

"No... you're right... I'll do it in secret." Rosette turned around as she began walking towards the Seventh Bell building again.

"Thanks again... I'll never forget you."

X X X X X X X X X X X X

End Flashback

X X X X X X X X X X X X

Rosette took another sip of her cocoa – it had become lukewarm now and a lot less tasty, chocolate was a drink best served hot. "Hey Joshua?"

"Yeah?" He had resumed his channel surfing – not that it had produced anything remotely interesting.

"Back when we met him..." She put down the cup again, they had been to the same summer school the following years, but she had never seen the boy again – somehow it was like she couldn't find the way back to the clearing, even though she had searched for it every time. "...that was when you started to get better right?"

"Yeah... I remember that..." The remote sent the TV into the high channel numbers – those that only produced static. "...it came pretty suddenly actually. It was also after that trip where we began to grow close..."

The girl smiled. That was true too. Before that, they hadn't been very good friends, and actually they used to be pretty mean to each other. But that one summer school trip had changed everything. Her mom had called it an act of God, crediting the divine healing powers of heaven and the catholic church. She could agree with the first reason, but could only laugh at the second. If her mom knew the truth about it all... she'd die of a heart attack when her whole world was turned upside down.

"Hey..." Joshua said. "You're going to that party on Sunday, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Man... I wish I was old enough to go..."

"You'll be next year... we'll go together then."

"Sure." He mumbled.

She began thinking about it all... today hadn't been that bad after all. She'd gotten a good grade, so she was going to the costume party. She'd talked to Chris, and he had been really nice to her, not to mention that she'd told him about the party, so she would be sure to see him there... there was no telling what could happen... now THAT made her smile on the inside. Of course Mary was an obstacle, but she was gonna get her out of the way. Nobody could claim that Rosette Christopher wasn't up for a challenge, she'd show her!

"Well..." The blonde teenager said as she put down the empty cup. "...I'm gonna go to bed, see ya tomorrow."

"See ya."

Rosette said a courtesy goodnight to her mom and walked up the stairs, Azmaria had already gone to bed so she was saved the 'pleasure' of wishing her a good night.

She went into her room and locked the door, sitting down upon the bed and glancing at the fabric which covered the pentagram she had meticulously drawn using the exact specifications she got from that boy.

She ought to give at least half an hour now.

Perhaps a whole – just to be safe.

Rosette turned off the lights before undressing and gathering the candles from their hiding place in the drawer, rolled up the rug and set up the lights in the circle where they belonged.

Then she sat down in the middle, closed her eyes, emptied her mind like he had told her to. Thought about nothing but her very own personal color, the one thing that would lead her on her journey into herself and take her back out again.

The very light of the eyes she had gazed into, when he had first shown her how to do this.

A crimson glow.

_'Here's one for you Joshua...'_

* * *

So there, another chapter done, and one which gives an explanation to the whole pentagram deal. If you're wondering about all the things that Rosette was taught about symbols and their interpretation, then I'll just confirm that as far as wikipedia credibility can be trusted everything is pretty much true. I must admit that I was fairly amazed at how perfectly the original meaning (well there's most likely plenty of other meanings which can be claimed to be the original, but let's just play along with it for the sake of the story) of a pentagram fit into the CC plot of Rosette wanting to cure her brother – almost scary. I do like the explanation myself and feel it makes for a very powerful motivation.

Thanks for reading, and as always, reviews are the fuel for the engine of a muse... or a mouse.


	4. The Masquerade

Hey, it's been a while hasn't it... anyway, I'm not gonna spout excuses since you're probably sick of hearing them. It is quite a long chapter this time, so I hope that'll be somewhat of a consolation. Still, despite this chapter's length, I never intended for this story to get installments up in the 7-10K range, so I'll try to make future ones shorter. I just felt I had little choice with this one.

A small correction for previous chapters: The party was always meant to happen on a Sunday and not a Saturday. It's because the club is open (and open to minors) extraordinally due to school being out on the following Monday because of the All Saints holiday. It doesn't change anything story-wise, but I have a soft spot for those kinds of details... also combining that with a certain musical reference in the chapter, the calender-wise reader should be able to pinpoint what year this story takes place in.

As always, Chrno Crusade is in no way a property of mine, and I'm not helping my economy by writing this.

* * *

Antichrist

By Shnoosh

Chapter 4 – The Masquerade

* * *

Past eight o'clock already.

Should have been done by now.

Have to hurry a bit.

'HOOOOONK!!'

"Jesus Christ!" Rosette exclaimed as the aggressive car horn nearly made her drop all her mascara. She rose to her feet and trampled towards the open window.

"I'M COMING!" The shout was directed at the car parked in the street beside the house. It had come to pick her up for the party tonight... dammit, why did they have to be on time? Didn't anybody know about the term 'fashionably late' anymore?

"HURRY UP, WILL YA!" Anna's voice called back. "It's already started!"

"Yeah, yeah!" Rosette answered in a slightly lower tone, not wanting to draw too much attention to herself and the others – sure she'd gotten permission her mom's permission, but you never knew with parents. Being allowed to go had been struggle enough, since her mom wasn't the biggest Halloween fan, and only by arguing that it was really about celebrating All Saints did she have any hope of convincing her. Of course she had played the trump of her (great) algebra test grade, which ultimately had tipped the scale in her favor. Still... no need to challenge fate, which was also the reason for her carefully chosen costume:

It was a blue dress that almost went to her ankles, with slightly puffy shoulders, closely tied in around the neck, and cut off at the middle of her arms. Her legs were covered by white stockings and the dress clad her upper body quite loosely, which gave it a very modest look... practically the only thing hinting of curves was the belt tied around her midsection. She donned the headdress, making sure she hid all of her hair under it, and letting the blue veil fall back over her shoulders.

She looked at her reflection.

Enter Rosette the nun!

No way her mom could disapprove of this, she almost looked like she had taken a vow of celibacy.

She felt at her hip... yeah it was there... she was ready now. Gathering the makeup in her purse, she went out of her room.

"Is that your outfit?" Joshua asked incredulously, when she closed the door. "You sure, you're not going to a mass?"

"Hey..." Rosette whispered with a secretive smile. "...this is just for getting out of the house."

"Heh..." Her brother returned the smile. "...should have known. It would be hard to get out of here looking like a witch I guess."

"Exactly... well, gotta go. See ya."

"See ya... and good luck."

That last comment made her raise an eyebrow. Was she that transparent? Oh God, she hoped not. Maybe it was just because Joshua knew her so well.

Rosette darted down the stairs, eager to get out as soon as possible...

Oh...

F.

U.

C.

K.

Of course 'Mom the watchful' had been waiting for her, the woman was standing like a hawk at the front door, with her trusty sidekick 'sweet little Azzy' next to her.

Man, she REALLY needed to get out fast now.

"I see you didn't bother to cover your arms."

"Mom..."

"Oh no, by all means, if your intent truly is to make a perverse mockery of the sacred garment, then who am I to tell you otherwise. Just know that I am not the only judge in these matters."

Rosette couldn't believe her own ears. She was about as daringly dressed as a missionary, but apparently anything short of a Mother Angelica outfit just wasn't chaste enough. Why, oh why did her mom have to act like the last bastion of Catholic virtue in a world of sin? "I'm _not _trying to mock anything... there's nothing offensive about this outfit, and everybody else is dressing up too!" Being forced to try and actually explain, instead of just telling the woman to stuff her religious lectures where no holy light could ever reach, really made her cringe inwardly.

Kate huffed once, letting her displeasure shine through. "You'll be home before midnight."

"Yes, mom." Rosette rolled her eyes after she had turned around... curfews sucked. She quickly went out the front door, grabbing the opportunity to escape before she could become the target of any more chiding. A quickly shouted 'bye' and the door was closed behind her...

Phew.

"Rosette..."

The voice made her turn around, her half sister was looking at her from the crack of the barely reopened door. What did _she_ want? "Yes?"

"Have fun." The words were spoken softly so they wouldn't reach the ears of their mom.

"Uhh... right... thanks?"

Azmaria gave a slight giggle before closing the door again, leaving a puzzled Rosette to get towards the car.

"Well, well... don't we look innocent." A sleazy voice called from the front yard next door... urgh... not now... not ever... go away.

"They say... those who _look_ innocent... are the _least _innocent... in bed." The guy was swaying back and forth, steadying himself on the fence, holding a can of Coors Original in his other hand. His hair (the shreds that were left of it anyway) was white and unruly, his eyes were glossy and his words barely made it through the barrier of half-drunken drool.

"Shut up, old guy!" Oh how she hated her neighbor... old lecherous freak always had a comment to shout at her. She didn't know his name and didn't care to, having always referred to him as 'Nasty Old Guy'.

She had envisioned killing him numerous times.

"Hehe... going for a Halloween party... betcha got some tasty panties underneath that big dress of yours... or going Indian... yeah... can see it in that filthy blush on those innocent cheeks... gonna surprise the guy tha's gonna feel you up tonight... like the gooood little slut you are." The sentence slobbered out of his mouth, and Rosette felt literally nauseous just thinking about what sort of images went through his head right now.

"What's the matter...? Don't like whatcha HEAR?" His voice rose as the teen concentrated on putting one foot ahead of the other. "It's the fucking TRUTH! Yer all little SLUTS! You and your little friends! Only thinking about a huge COCK inside ya! That's all you WANT! ALL OF YA!" He put the can to his mouth, still holding on to the fence to maintain what little balance he had.

Rosette clenched her jaws, trying the best she could to ignore him and keep walking away. Her face felt hotter than the angry fires of hell, and it took all of her restraint not pick up a stone and hurl it at him. She bet she could hit him right between the eyes... and kick him in the nuts after he'd fallen down...

Now there was a much more pleasant thought.

She reached the car and quickly got inside, they'd been kind enough to allow her 'shotgun'. "Let's go."

"Man..." Anna said. "...I know I say it every time, but your neighbor is a fucking asshole pervert bastard."

"Tell me about it, I can't wait to move out and far away from him."

Claire and Mary appeared to agree silently from the back seat as the car left for the club, the former had on an expression of dignified revulsion and the latter looked rather stunned. They were all in full Halloween regalia.

Mary had true to her proclamation dressed up as a pirate... or tried to... the most convincing parts of her 'outfit' consisted of a black eyepatch over her left eye and a red head scarf. A loose white shirt and pair of dark pants which both looked rather not-seventeen century made up the rest of her clothing... so much for her looking like Elizabeth from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Claire was in a standard sorceress-in-black outfit complete with a huge-sleeved dress that went to her calves, a crooked, pointed, giant-brim hat, boots and a wand. The small glasses she had added made her look the bookish kind... all in all, Rosette had to admit it was a look that actually suited her as well as her personality. No doubt the outfit was carefully thought out, even if it was a bit generic.

Anna had gone for the secret service agent look with a business-like bolero jacket, matching dress, and a pair of reflective sunglasses hiding her eyes... even an earpiece enabling her to receive orders from 'high command'. All in all she looked like a sneaky tough-girl type, although the costume certainly did not hold back with... implications. The low cut front was only covered by a short necktie, and the dress showed so much leg that it was clearly designed to turn heads.

Rosette had to admit that right now Anna's outfit definitely radiated the most sex appeal... while her own sadly gave off the least... even less than Mary's

"Is that really what you're gonna wear?" Anna asked as if she could read the blonde's thoughts. "You know, a costume party is still a party."

"I had to keep it modest, if I wanted a chance to go at all"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah... but watch this." A smug smile crossed the blonde teenager's lips as she pulled at the sides of her dress. When she had told her mom about there being nothing offensive about her clothing – well, that was a lie. Two pieces of fabric came off with a harsh ripping sound, making a large slit in each side of the dress, going all the way up to her hips, and showing that the stockings stopped midway on her thighs. "Thank God for velcro."

"Oh wow that's so smart." Mary exclaimed.

Rosette couldn't help but agree with the girl in the back... but she wasn't done yet. Unbuckling the belt revealed that the loose blue garment covering her upper body was nothing but a disguise hiding the real thing. The actual costume was a much more snug piece of clothing covered by a tight fitting bodice, which did a very good job at enhancing curves. She pulled her hair out from underneath the nun's veil, letting it fall onto her shoulders, and opened the top of the dress slightly so the cross, she wore in a chain, came to rest between her breasts. Now she only needed to do the makeup, which had been hidden underneath the false garment... time to make the finishing touches in converting 'Rosette the nun' into 'sexy sister Rosette'.

"That's pretty damn sneaky." Anna commented.

"I know. But with a mom like mine, I have to be."

"Your mom... she's like the strictest mom ever." Came a comment from the back.

"And possibly the most allergic to the idea of sex." Claire added in an even voice. "Everything considered, it's a miracle that you were even born."

Rosette halted her makeup-laying. "It's not just me you know, she's actually had three kids... _three_. And you don't get three kids by having sex three times in your life... not unless you're incredibly unlucky."

"Now that could actually explain a few things." The red haired motioned with her head towards Rosette's hip. "What's that thing for, by the way?"

The blonde looked down at the holster strapped to her left thigh. "Why isn't it obvious? I'm a nun with a gun. Pretty catchy, huh?"

"Hey! That rhymes!"

"Did you just notice that?"

"We could figure out rhyming names for all of us. I could be the sly spy."

"Yeah... and I'll be the pirate that's... uhh..."

"Not terribly bright?"

"Hey! That was mean... and it wasn't even a real rhyme."

"Well, we've definitely got a witch being a bitch." Anna cut in with a smirk.

"Very funny..."

"But seriously, what rhymes with pirate?"

"Uhh... irate?"

"What does that mean?"

"Angry."

"Yeah... then I could be the irate pirate... Arrr..."

"That sounds a bit... hey Rosette... what do you reckon the chances of Chris the Irishman showing up tonight are?"

"Hmm..." She packed down the mascara and pulled out her eye liner. "Pretty good I think."

"Seeing the amount of makeup you're putting on, I believe so too."

"Right... as if_ I _am the only one." Rosette retorted over her shoulder.

"You're right, he's much too dangerous to have running loose." Anna cast a thoughtful glance at the badge on her jacket. "I think I'll have to arrest him and keep him in detention indefinitely."

"Oh wow... you mean like... keep him locked up at home... and take him out when you wanted to."

"Now there's a thought." Claire said, she was mildly surprised that Mary had come up with a somewhat decent idea.

"God..." Rosette immediately stopped applying make up and cast her eyes skyward. "I just imagined what he would look like in cuffs, and they _totally_ fit him."

"Oh... yeah." The response was quite unanimous.

X X X X X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X X X X

It was around half past eight when they pulled up in the parking lot. The club was roughly two miles outside of town since the religious community held a mild dislike for the place, and as a compromise it was kept a bit away from residential areas. Apparently they had not come too early since the lot was already half filled with parked cars. It was ok, there was nothing worse than being the first arrival at a party.

Rosette took in the sight when they got inside, the club was fairly big... or at least she thought so having never really been to one before. There were two bars, a large one with stools and everything to one side and a smaller round one smacked down in the middle of the large dance floor. People were mostly hanging around, sizing each other up and sipping soft drinks... of course they couldn't serve alcohol on a night like tonight. The dance floor itself was quite empty right now, nobody had made the first move to go and claim it. Or perhaps it was because of the music, Rosette believed she recognized that one.

"Is that Boomkat, they're playing?" She asked and was met with a few nods. "That's like over a year old."

"It's still early." Claire said. "They'll probably play something newer later on."

"Let's go get a sprite." Anna suggested.

"I'm not really thirsty right now."

The red haired shot Rosette a look implying that she should anyway, and it made the blonde concede. The bar wasn't terribly busy right now, so it would be easy to order something, and it was probably a good idea if they were going to dance a lot... she hoped they would, right now the mood in here was a bit repressed.

They stood for a little while scouring over the other people in the club, everyone was more or less dressed up. From the homemade fantasy costumes looking even less authentic than Mary's pirate outfit, to full body suits and weird stuff such as being clad as a hamburger or a clown with a ten foot waistline and a blood-covered meat cleaver.

"Why is it?" Rosette asked. "That all the guys have to dress up in stuff that's either stupid or ugly?"

"I don't know, but the ghoul and zombie population of the world has definitely increased by a few orders of magnitude."

"We should find a table to sit by." Anna said and directed her eyes at Rosette. "I just gotta go to the bathroom."

"OK..." The blonde caught on right away. "...I'll come with you."

"Then we'll find a good table." Mary said cheerily.

The two girls found their way to the bathroom, it was empty and thankfully smelled clean. Anna placed her sprite next to the sink and studied herself briefly in the panorama mirror.

"I hope it gets more fun later, this isn't exactly how I pictured it would be." Rosette said in a slightly dejected tone.

"And what did you expect?"

"I dunno, more fun I guess."

"Heh, you're pretty quick to judge, we only just got here." She put on a sly smirk and pulled her skirt up. "But you're right that we could use something to spice things up a bit."

"What are you doi... hey..."

As Anna revealed more an more of her legs, it became apparent that she had managed to smuggle in two metal flasks, which had been strapped to her inner thighs. She retrieved them and handed Rosette one. "Here."

"What is it?"

"100 proof Absolut."

"Seriously? How did you get that?"

Anna leaned back, stretching her arms lazily. "Oh... I just picked the lock to dad's liquor stash."

"No way! Won't you get in trouble?"

"Not at all. My mom's visiting relatives out of town, and I am here which means that dad's home all alone. He'll get wasted with his drunk-ass buddies, so he won't even notice that half a bottle of vodka has gone missing... and if he does, he'll just believe he's drunk it all himself."

Rosette turned over the metal flask in her hand. "That's a pretty lucky coincidence."

"Not at all. When he heard about the Halloween party he encouraged me to go _and_ began persuading my mom to visit her family for All Saints. He probably thought he was being really smart in creating the perfect opportunity to drink his brains out."

Rosette frowned. "I can't believe your mom doesn't say anything?" The memories of her own mom's marriage to Ricardo Hendrick were still fuming faintly in the back of her mind.

"Hah! My mom's so clueless she doesn't even know he keeps a stash, and he doesn't know that I know about it." She unscrewed the lid and sniffed at the alcohol. "Nobody's going to suspect anybody of anything and everybody's blissfully happy, a win-win situation."

"Yeah..." Rosette discarded the thoughts about her past and Anna's family, deciding that they would do her no good. Besides nothing was so bad it wasn't good for anything... she grinned and opened her flask too, putting the mouth of the container in contact with her own.

Tears immediately stung her eyes when the liquor passed through her lips, and she had to suppress a strong need to spit it all out again. She forced herself to swallow, allowing the liquid to burn it's way to her stomach... ugh... becoming that 'aware' of ones own insides could _not_ be a good thing. "Yuck! It tastes terrible."

"You're not supposed to drink it straight." Anna chuckled. "What do you think the sprite's for?" Looking incredibly smug, she emptied some of the soft drink into the sink, replacing it with vodka.

"Of course, I'm stupid... this way we can take it back with us too." Rosette mixed vodka into her own drink. "What about Claire and Mary?"

"There's not really enough for four, so just keep it between us, OK. I'd feel too guilty about killing what little is between Mary's ears anyway."

"Right... and Claire plus drinking..." The blonde leaned against the wall with her drink in hand, casting an knowing look at her compatriot.

"Exactly..." Anna gulped down a sip. "...besides we might need somebody to drive the car back, and that was going to be Claire anyway. You know she'd never risk getting a DUI and she's way too responsible to allow others to drink and drive."

"Heh... you've just covered every base, haven't ya?"

Anna lowered her sunglasses looking straight at the blonde. "You think you're the only one who's crafty around here? This outfit isn't just for show, I'm an expert at these things."

"Oh... then I suppose your name isn't really Anna either, and you're working undercover too."

"Hey... you _trying_ to blow my cover? Keep it down."

"Oh right I forgot..." Rosette whispered back. "Even the walls have ears."

"Hell yeah."

Rosette couldn't help another little grin as she took another mouthful, things were looking up already...

The club had attracted a remarkable amount of newcomers in the time they'd been in the bathroom, and as Rosette followed Anna through the mass of people (being careful not to spill any of her precious drink), she had to wonder just how long they'd been out there. They'd emptied almost half the liquor already, and the rest had been mixed in their glasses – it still looked like sprite but would not pass any taste-test.

She was beginning to get a bit of a buzz going...

All the more reason to be careful with her glass.

"Over there." Anna shouted over the music and pointed to where Claire and Mary were sitting. They'd found a good spot where you could practically see all of the dance floor, and still not risk being hit by motor impaired people trying to bust a move.

"Took you guys a while." Claire commented as they sat down, Rosette next to Mary, Anna next to the speaker.

"Oh, you know, we had a lot of stuff to talk about." Anna grinned and added, "it's kind of a girl thing," in a whisper. Rosette couldn't help but giggle... she was getting giddy.

"Sure." Claire replied in a sarcastic tone, not pursuing the matter further. "By the way Rosette, we were sort of curious."

"Yeah..." Mary had a huge grin plastered on her face. "...about this whole devil-worshiping thing."

Blue eyes opened wide. _'Not this again!' _Her expression turned angry. "What now? I told you already..."

"Oh no. It's not like that." Claire smiled as well now. "We just wanted to say that we understand you perfectly... and we'd like to ask where we should go to sign up."

"What?" Rosette asked, as Mary turned to look over her shoulder, and Claire motioned with her head in a direction somewhere behind the two blondes.

"Holy crap!" Anna exclaimed nearly dropping her sunglasses. "Well count me in too, cause if _that's _what they're serving in Hell, then Heaven can kiss my ass goodbye."

Rosette turned around too, and her eyes caught sight of what the other three girls had already spotted...

"Oh..."

Apparently a certain purple haired senior had decided to attend the costume party too.

"My..."

He was standing at the round bar in the center of the dance floor, talking to some other seniors, and like everyone else he was dressed up.

"God!"

And man, was he dressed up...

"I believe the proper wording would be 'oh my devil'." Claire commented.

Rosette's mind struggled to find somewhere to begin describing him, as her vision greedily sucked in the sight. Two curved and slightly wicked-looking horns protruded from his temples, his ears had been elongated into the slender elf-like kind. His hair-braid had been encased in some form of metal, making it appear like a plated steel whip. He wore a pair of low-cut black pants that without being tight fitted did an exceptional job at conveying the shape of his legs. Two large black bat wings were attached to his back, and folded around his sides like a long cape.

But... his upper body... was not clad in a lot... just two wide pieces of what looked like red leather which went from front to rear hip – one draped over each shoulder, and only tied by being tucked into a belt around his waistline. They were wide enough to cover the shoulders (and those did not seem particularly narrow from her point of view), but they left his arms completely uncovered, meaning she could see his biceps, triceps and every other well-shaped cep he possessed. Since the leather tabards weren't crisscrossed but went straight down from shoulder to waist, they left a decent gap in between them, which showed off the depression between his pectorals, his belly-button, his...

"I swear, that boy's got abs!." Anna said exactly what Rosette was thinking... damn, her fingers itched terribly with the need to dig into those stomach muscles right now. "And you were soo right about cuffs too, Rosette... at least you don't have to imagine how that would look anymore."

The comment referred to the heavy looking manacles that clad his wrists. Each had a chain attached to it, which wrapped in a spiral around his lower arm, and was hooked onto the leather fabric on his back... it looked like they could be detached from the clothing.

"What I wouldn't give to have a hold of the other end of those chains..." Rosette had actually meant for that to remain a thought, but her voice just couldn't help itself.

The other three didn't comment, but silent agreement was in the air.

"Well..." Anna said cheerily raising her glass. "If that doesn't call for a toast, then I don't know what does, so here's to a great view... or I could say..." She shot Rosette an 'insider smile'. "Na zdrowie."(+)

Rosette had no idea what that meant, but by the sound of the words she figured it referred to the vodka somehow, and she couldn't help smiling a bit as she took another gulp. It still didn't taste great, probably a bit too strong, but she was really beginning to like the effect it had on her.

"You know." The teenager put down her drink and fished out her cell phone. "I _have_ to get a picture of that, move a bit to the side Mary."

"You're taking a picture of him?" Claire asked. "That's pretty immoral, unless he knows you're doing it."

"Oh, stop being so righteous." Rosette defended.

"Well it is a bit... you know... stalker-like." Anna agreed. "Make a copy for me too, will ya?"

"And me." Mary chirped.

"What? You don't care, what if somebody did that to..."

"If I didn't know about it, I wouldn't care, and if I did, I'd exploit his feelings to wrap him around my little finger." Anna took a sip of her glass and smiled. "What can I say, I'm all for improper obsessions."

"Fine..." Claire rolled her eyes. "Can I have one too, then?"

"Sure, but I thought you considered it to be immoral." Rosette snickered.

"Well, I'm not gonna be the _only _one who's not getting a picture of that devil-hunk over there."

"There. Should be a few good ones here."

"Uh, let me look." Mary leaned over and peeked at the cell phone's screen. "Aww... it's not very good... can't you zoom in more?"

"Don't worry." Rosette reassured. "I took it with the best resolution. The screen can't show it, it's gonna be much better when I get it on a computer."

"I wanna see too."

"Me too."

Rosette displayed the pictures she had taken to the other girls, and they eagerly studied them all, commenting on which one was the best for printing – Rosette couldn't help smiling, she was owning something of real value here, something to bargain with.

The music had gotten louder and better too.

"You know what... let's go dance." Anna shot up from her chair. The others agreed and soon followed.

In a gathered troupe, the four girls went towards the dance floor, several others had gotten the same idea as them, and it was almost getting a bit crowded. Well, they'd just have to wrest it from everyone else, Rosette thought with a grin.

Things were getting fun now, Mary was over-ecstatic, Claire was slightly cautious, Anna was daring and Rosette was... she was getting really tipsy... she began to lose herself in the dancing...

After a while the music changed to a slower R&B-esque song, and Rosette realized Anna was beginning to move closer to her, giving her a couple of _very_ suggestive looks... then the red haired's hand was brushing slightly along the side of her stomach. She was dancing as if she wanted to live out some erotic urge.

Rosette responded, throwing a loose hand around the back of Anna's neck and pulling her in, their bodies molded closer, moving in sync to the rhythm, their legs parted and became placed between each others, their breasts almost touching, their mouths opening in what looked like breathy moans...

Oh man, this was working pretty damn well... she hadn't actually thought it would.

Out of the corner of her eye, the blonde noticed at _least_ half a dozen guys, who had all simply stopped dead in their tracks, forgotten completely what they were doing or talking about, and instead looking at the two seemingly bisexual girls on the dance floor... little hungry puppy-dogs having spotted a biscuit. All this attention, being looked at by so many guys, who all seemed to be starving just for her... this was something she could get really used to.

Now she only hoped they were getting _his_ attention as well.

After a few minutes they broke up again, deciding that this was as much 'show', they wanted to put up for now... and besides... she needed to go to the bathroom... for real this time. The other three girls wanted to dance some more, so Rosette left the floor by herself. She went towards their table, wanting to grab a bit more of her drink on the way.

"Hmphh... thought I noticed poverty..." A haughty voice commented as she walked past a table.

"Oh shut up, bitch." Rosette scowled when she recognized the voice, it belonged to a red haired junior wearing some form of fancy looking glitter dress, she had a feather boa around her shoulders and toyed with a slender, black cigarette holder with an unlit cigarette in it. She honestly didn't know why but for as long as she could remember, the girl had been mocking her, trying to make her life even more miserable than it already was. She was maybe the richest kid in school, always dressed in the latest most expensive clothes, and she obviously enjoyed reminding Rosette of the fact that she came from a more... economically challenged household.

"Bitch, am I now... what a terribly clever retort... but I would expect no less from someone of your... social status."

Rosette was about to whirl around and smack the girl sitting at the table, but she had to control herself, she didn't want to be kicked out. All of that girl's snob friends were there too, and they were all snickering at how riled up she was getting.

"It's not that I'm judging you or anything," Satella continued, "after all it's not your fault, that you were dealt a different hand from the beginning, just as it's not _my _fault that I'll be inheriting my dad's firm. Honestly, I'm sorry. I truly am. It must be so hard to have so little in such a material world, where we all have to sell something to get by." She smiled. "...in your case, I suppose that will be your body, since you can't offer much else of value." A couple of her friends couldn't help an outright chuckle at that comment. "Seeing how you dance, you've obviously realized that too."

Rosette was moving away as fast as she could. She hated that girl... really, really hated her. She always popped up and spoiled her mood, whenever she could, and Rosette had actually been enjoying herself up until now. She got back to where their table was, and chucked down a large gulp of her drink... it definitely didn't taste like sprite... and almost all the carbonation was gone...

She took another one... damn Satella for making her want to numb her senses so much. With a less than pleased expression she went towards the bathroom.

For some reason the vodka decided to really kick in when she left the bathroom again, and her legs felt extremely wobbly, as she walked back towards the table. She slumped into her seat, Mary and Anna were sitting opposite of her, she saw Claire was still out dancing... with some guy apparently – why did the world have to spin all of a sudden?

"How are you feeling?" The red haired asked, looking intently at the blonde.

"I'm... bit woozhy..." Crap... couldn't she even pronounce s-sounds now?

"I got some water... here..."

"...Thanks..." Rosette responded, putting the glass to her mouth...

"Dammit..." Anna cursed below her breath.

"Wha...?"

"Just..." The red haired shook her head. "...it's that God Damn Mary again."

"What? I haven't done anything."

"Oh for the love of..." Anna sighed loudly. "Could you for once _not_ be such an airhead? I'm not talking about you."

"Well, sorry..." Mary wrinkled her nose, and let out an offended snort.

"Wha's with Mary?" Rosette asked. "Oh no... don't tell me!" She cast her eyes at the dance floor again and quite right.

Mary was dancing... with Chris!

She could feel her blood begin to heat up, along with the feeling of her heart sinking deep into her stomach. Mary was of course also dressed up... in some form of last-century dress which was showing a fair amount of cleavage, and had a definite push-up effect. She had gloves on, a pink shawl around her bare shoulders, and Rosette couldn't help but think that she looked elegant.

She became extremely self-conscious, dressed in what she had considered a sexy nun costume with a fake plastic gun, which now only made her feel really, really plain compared to dress as classy and feminine as Mary's.

The two seniors were both smiling, and ever so often Mary seemed to let out a little giggle at some dance move they made together... she was literally whoring herself to him... but... as much as she hated to admit it, they did actually look good together out there... like a demon and a princess... darkness and light... oh, she wanted to strangle that girl so much it hurt.

She knew she was staring, but she couldn't help it, and her teeth ground together in suppressed anger, when she noticed how the senior girl wrapped her arm around him...

Did she just...

She had just unhooked one of the chains from his back, unwinding it from his arm an moving away from him, and he just let her... and he was smiling!

Rosette thought she must have turned a sickeningly green color with jealousy... she so wanted to do what the other girl was doing right now... holding on to the end of that chain and pulling him towards her.

And just when things couldn't get any worse the girl spun her way back into his arms, wrapping the chain around herself, and getting dipped deeply, when she got close enough.

"I can't... watch that..." Rosette scowled.

"Then don't." Anna commented in an indifferent tone, even though she didn't like what she saw, she was clearly not affected as much as Rosette. "Hey... cheer up... we've still got the pictures." She winked and took a sip of her drink.

"I kinda think they look cute together." Mary said in a way too cheery manner.

It did not help Rosette's mood the least bit because... well, even though the other girls might not have thought so, she had really_ believed_ she had a shot with him, and now she was smacked with the reality that he was about to be stolen right in front of her. Thinking about the pictures didn't do much good either, if anything, that just made her feel even more pathetic.

"I'm going dancing again." Anna rose to her feet. "You coming?"

"No thanks." Rosette said. "I need to sit a little while."

"I'll stay too."

"Alright then." The red haired shrugged and headed for the dance floor, her body language indicating, that Claire was not supposed to be the only one who could find a guy to dance with.

"You really like him, don't you?" Mary asked after a little while.

"Eh... what?"

"Well, he _is_ really nice to look at... but I don't think I could see myself with someone like him."

"You can't? Why?" Rosette asked, completely baffled.

"Oh... it's not that I wouldn't want to... it's just he's sort of... you know... unreachable for someone like me. I just don't want to get my hopes up... that way I won't get disappointed."

"You're saying, you'd rather settle for something plain... instead of going after what you want?" Rosette couldn't imagine adhering to such a philosophy.

"Well... yeah... kinda..." She glanced out at the dance floor again and Rosette's gaze reluctantly went the same way.

And she spotted them again. They had stopped dancing and were now talking into each others ears.

He said something.

She laughed.

He smiled.

Dammit!

The senior girl's body language was nauseatingly clear, toying with the chain she had unhooked, seemingly moving closer to him all the time, as if she was trying to merge with him.

Rosette looked away...

taking another gulp of her drink...

and looked back again.

And how she wished she hadn't.

Chris' arms were around her waistline. Mary had one hand dug under one of the leather pieces, and another grasping the hair at the back of his neck.

And their lips... touched!

Not just lightly, but literally gnawing as if they were trying to eat the skin off each other's face... a deep, sensual, french...

She had to look away again. Now she felt she was really gonna be sick. Her hands found the cell phone, she studied the clock, it was not even half past ten yet...

She looked towards the dance floor... and quickly looked away. Why was this such pure emotional torture?

"I think... I'm gonna go home..." Rosette let out dejectedly.

"Already?" The other girl asked. "But how will you get home?"

The teenager shrugged. "I'll just walk I guess... I have a curfew anyway." It was a bit of a lie, since it would most likely take her around half an hour to walk home, meaning that even if she wasn't riding with the others, she could stay another hour if she wanted to...

She didn't want to.

"Oh... OK. I'll tell the others then."

"Yeah... I guess we'll meet up tomorrow at church."

"Yeah, we will." The short haired blonde smiled. "And cheer up Rosette... it's not the end of the world, you know."

Somehow, getting sympathy from Mary of all people, just made her feel terrible right now. On top of it all she was still dizzy, and that didn't help her nausea one bit. She needed to get out of here, and quickly made it for the door.

Outside the weather was clear, the night sky filled with stars, and it was horribly chilly. Rosette rubbed her arms – coming from the warmth inside and out into this cold was _not_ comfortable. Perhaps if she walked briskly, she could keep warm.

"Are you going home?" A gentle voice asked, when she reached the end of the parking lot.

She turned around and saw an elderly man with thick grayish hair and a well-combed mustache. He was slightly thin and dressed in a modest but neat looking suit. There was an orderly... gentlemanly... feel about him. "Wha's it to you?"

"Forgive my intrusion. I just do not like to see a pretty, young lady, such as yourself, walking home all by herself."

Rosette scowled, swaying slightly on her legs... she was still dizzy... and cold as well now... in fact her mood could not become much worse. "Well... I'm gonna walk home... whether you like it or not."

"I would offer to drive you home, if you would let me."

The thought of skipping the walk seemed appealing for a second, she would get hom much faster, and she wouldn't be cold, and... wait... there was something fishy here... she backed up slightly. "Uhmm... sorry but, no thanks. I don't really know you... so... uhmm..." Why couldn't she formulate herself more smoothly?

"I am sorry, it would of course not be prudent nor seemly, for a young lady to enter the car of a man she did not know." The old man said and walked slightly closer, he gave her one of the most gentle and heartwarming smiles, she'd ever seen in her life. "However, I would still offer to walk you home."

OK, this was getting kinda weird. The man did seem friendly and harmless though... and most importantly, not physically strong. "But, why would you do that?"

The old man kept smiling. "At the moment I have nothing else to do but wait, for several hours I suspect, so I see no problem in using some of that time to walk you to your house."

Rosette turned around and began walking away. "Alright... knock yourself out... but if you try anything, I'm gonna kick your ass." She rubbed her arms again.

"Yes, of course, I understand." The man came to walk beside her. "Please, allow me."

Rosette felt his suit jacket being draped over her shoulders, it didn't do much to warm her legs, but helped immensely on her goose-bump covered arms. "Uhh... thanks."

"No need to," the man said still smiling warmly, "I saw that you were cold, and the temperature does not bother me so much."

"What's your name?"

"Steiner. And yours?"

"Rosette."

"That's a very pretty name."

"Thanks, I guess... so what were you doing out here?"

"I am a driver and a servant. I took the young master to the party, and I will drive him home again when he wishes."

"Hmm... what if he wants to go home, while you're walking me home?"

"Then I will merely explain to him, that I was taking a young lady safely to her house. He approves of that kind of behavior and would accept it as a valid excuse for keeping him waiting."

"You? Following me safely home?" Rosette couldn't help laughing slightly. "Sorry, no offense, but I can't see how you could put up much of a fight if somebody came to assault us."

The man smiled again. "You are right. I would not be worth much if such a thing happened. However simply by being beside you, any risk of assault will be greatly reduced."

"How's that?"

"If an assailant wished to attack you, then, pardon my words, he would most likely seek to violate you."

"Uh-huh..."

"If you were walking alone, he could do so in a secluded area, and if the matter came to court it would be your word against his. His attorney would most certainly point out that you were quite daringly dressed, and that you were intoxicated."

"Uh... what?" Rosette stammered.

"I can see it in your eyes and hear it in your speech, but do not worry, I will not tell anybody." He folded his arms around his back. "Now, because of your clothing and the fact you have consumed alcohol, a jury could be swayed to believe, that you had convinced him you were of legal age to partake in the act under mutual consent. You would stand with a case that was difficult to prove, and the man could likely go free, since there would be significant cause for reasonable doubt. It does however require that there are no witnesses, and that is why the mere presence of another person, is likely to deter any assailant, since he would have to make sure the witness does not talk. Most people are unwilling to commit murder, even those that are capable of violating a lady."

Rosette pulled the jacket closer around her. "I guess that's true... but won't you have to walk back alone then?"

"I do," Steiner replied with that characteristic smile of his, she liked that smile. "But there's not much reason to assault an old man, and even if something happened, I would most likely only lose a bit of money."

The walk home was uneventful and a tad lengthy, but it felt considerably shorter due to small talk, plus walking in the fresh air also helped clear her head. Rosette learned that Steiner was a butler to a rich family, and it was the eldest son, who was at the party. The old man inquired a bit about her, but was very cordial and never asked anything which could be considered too personal.

They reached her house around eleven o'clock and Rosette gave him back his jacket, thanking him for walking her home. The butler bid her goodnight, and turned back towards the club.

She inserted the key carefully, trying to open the door as silently as possible. One good thing about coming home early was that her mom wasn't here to greet her, and if she was really quiet, she could get to her room and go to sleep without having to deal with her now – to her great relief she managed to get into her room and lock the door...

Dammit.

She sniffed once.

Dammit.

Tonight was supposed to have been so good...

Now it was just shit.

She looked at the large rug in the center of her room.

Perhaps... doing that would help.

She took off her costume – wearing it now reminded her too much of tonight – and grabbed the pillar candles from their drawer. She spotted a couple of pictures on the desk, one of them was of Chris... she had taken it sometime earlier this week. Her eyes began to moisten.

Still she couldn't help picking up the picture, giving it a slight caress with her finger and taking it with her towards the pentagram. She rolled up the rug, and placed the candles where they were supposed to be in the diagram, but as she sat down in the middle of it, about to begin the ritual, she noticed something.

What the HELL was SHE doing in the picture?

She must not have noticed when she took it, but standing not very far from Chris was none other than the bitch senior herself.

Rosette grit her teeth as her anger began boiling inside of her again. She shot up from the floor and headed towards the desk, grabbing a pair of scissors – no way was that bitch gonna be in a picture, which was supposed to be of him!

She sat down in the pentagram again and proceeded to carefully cut the offending girl out of her picture, leaving only an image of the purple haired, she had hoped would become hers...

BITCH!

Rosette put away the picture of Chris, and grabbed the one she had cut out. She placed it on the floor, and stuck the scissor into the blonde senior's face. That felt good somehow. Eyes widening in a slightly maniacal way, she continued to stab the picture of Mary over and over and over...

_'AUUUW!!'_

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she clutched her hand, blood pouring from the soft tissue between her thumb and index finger. She'd stabbed herself? She was such a god damn klutz! Such a god damn clumsy, stupid...

Droplets were now beginning to run down her cheeks, her hands dropped towards the floor, blood still trying to escape from the scissor wound. It was no wonder why Chris preferred Mary to her. Mary was beautiful, she was elegant, she was a senior, she was popular, and probably rich too.

And she... she was just sitting here, surrounded by candlelight like a wicca-wanabee, in the middle a home-scribbled crayon pentagram, stabbing pictures, accidentally injuring herself...

More tears fell down.

She was a freak.

* * *

So... that didn't really go as well as it could have... we'll just have to see if things brighten up next time.

(+)Anna is very much hinting towards the vodka with the expression, in the sense that she's considering the spirits to be of Russian origin (Which is partially true). It's actually way off it's mark since that toast isn't even used in Russia, the spelling 'na zdrowie' is the Polish version of it, and Absolut vodka is made in Sweden... but then again, you can't expect a 16-year old girl to know the ins and outs of worldwide drinking culture anyway, and the fact that she's even familiar with the saying is probably not common for an American teenager – perhaps that could be credited to her having overheard her dad and his buddies at some point, but that's a whole different story I suppose.


	5. The Murder

One-way chat with the author:

Wow... I'm being fast here, and inspired. Very positive for writing fanfiction. It also means I haven't got much to say except glad you've gotten this far. This is where the lights in the story begin to dim. ;)

Disclaimer: Do I really have to... seriously? But I don't wanna... (long breathy sigh) alright... I don't own Chrno Crusade _or_ any of its characters _or_ the plotline... wait! I do own _this_ plotline... wahaha!! It's _mine _and _mine alone_!! But you can read it if you want to, I'm ok with that.

And gotta remember to thank all you who have reviewed so far... you guys are simply the inspiring wind beneath my humble wings of creativity (aww didn't that just make you feel all special and stuff and... eh... more stuff...)

So... here we go

* * *

Antichrist

By Shnoosh

Chapter 5 – The Murder

* * *

_Her eyes are wide and full of fear._

_She cries._

_She screams._

_She runs._

_Or she tries to run._

_Her legs doesn't carry her far before she falls – thick crimson liquid bubbling out of the deep slashes in her thighs._

_She still tries to escape, hands grasping the grass, trying to pull herself forward with sheer willpower alone. Tears run from her eyes in a seemingly endless stream._

_She looks up._

"_P-please . . ." She's trying to speak through the mess of saliva, snot and blood in her mouth. "Please . . . d-don't . . ."_

_Don't what?_

_She sobs some more and nearly chokes._

_Come on . . . spit it out already._

"_D-don't . . . I don't want to die . . ."_

_Figured as much._

"_Plea . . ." She still tries to crawl away again, leaving behind thick dark red trails on the ground . . . they are nearly black in this light. She looks up again, her face is dirty, her hair disheveled and clinging to her sweat covered cheeks. ". . . please . . . don't kill me . . . please don't . . ."_

_Ah yes . . ._

_Good to hear what she wants . . ._

_But no can do . . . sorry._

_Or . . . nah . . . not really sorry after all._

_A hard kick sends her rolling over . . . onto her back . . . looking straight up . . ._

_Sobbing._

"_P-please . . ."_

_Begging._

"_Please d-don't . . ."_

_Pleading._

"_Don-"_

_Her words are cut short as claws strike her again. This time it's her stomach, rending deeply into the soft tissue, twisting once . . . twice to aggravate the wound, and increase the pain it will cause her, before her body gives up. A gargled mass of unintelligible sounds escapes from the back of her throat, like she's about to hurl._

_Might as well rip open her throat too . . . allow for whatever is in there to get out easily . . ._

Rosette shot up from her bed...

Outside, the morning sun was already in the sky, shining into her little room.

Her breathing was extremely heavy, her pajamas was soaked in sweat, and although her eyes were wide and awake, they kept seeing what she had just woken up from.

That was...

very...

_very_...

disturbing.

To say the least.

She had never had a dream quite like that before. Of course she'd had plenty of nightmares, plenty of bad things happening during sleep, plenty of things she had been quite thankful to wake up from. This was a different sort however.

It had been so vivid and realistic in every little gruesome detail. Every part of it had stood out as sharp and clear as if it had actually happened, and now the images were lodged in her mind, closer to actual memories rather than a very bizarre nightmare.

Another thing... her state of mind during the dream. It had been one of casual amusement. As if she might as well enjoy the whole act of killing, now that she was doing it...

Rosette's body began shaking slightly.

Sure... it was true, she really hated Mary. _Really_ hated her. Because of all that had happened yesterday.

But...

Killing...

Murdering...

Another person.

And not focusing on any reason, but simply doing it, and taking such a sick laid-back pleasure in the act.

The teenager bit the inside of her cheek, glancing nervously down at her hands, fearing slightly that she'd discover them covered in blood.

They weren't.

God... she hoped this wasn't how serial killers started out.

X X X X X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X X X X

Rosette hated going to church.

It wasn't really that spending time there was as horrible as some, like Anna, claimed it to be. There were just a lot of other things she'd rather do on a Sunday (or in this case a Monday where school was off) morning. The new minister they'd gotten only a few months ago was also really nice. They had stayed behind a few times, and she had exchanged a word or two with him about casual stuff. He seemed to be really easy going, plus he wasn't that old, maybe around thirty, and he was actually good looking too... or as good looking as you could now expect a Catholic minister to be.

Rosette sat down next to the other three girls who had just arrived as well. They usually sat together, on a bench apart from their families. To those considering church a family thing, it seemed a bit odd, but the arrangement had made it both easier for the girls to get through the sermons and for their parents to drag them into them. In any case, who sat with who wasn't a big deal to most of them (meaning everyone but her own mom), as long as they all went. Claire's parents had argued that it was reasonable for the four girls to sit with each other, and that it might help to make them feel more at home in the church; Mary's parents had listened wide-eyed to what Claire's had said, agreeing whole heartedly afterwards; Anna's parents didn't care one way or the other. Rosette noticed how said girl's father was looking slightly pale and extremely tired, his head nodded repeatedly and he was obviously struggling to keep himself awake – the red haired had not been wrong about what he had been up to last night.

Now the minister turned around and faced his congregation... his blond bangs falling down smoothly towards radiantly blue eyes as he gave everyone in here a little smile in silent greeting. He really was the most pleasant priest she had ever met, and everything considered, she might even have begun to somewhat enjoy coming to church, because of that new minister.

Ironically he was the reason why she hated coming here more than ever now.

"Uff..." Rosette whispered, as she shot an angry glare at her mom. "Could she _be_ any more embarrassing... I swear, if she stares any harder, her eyes are gonna fall out of their sockets."

"Heh..." Claire snickered. "There _is _a woman behind all that righteousness."

"Hmphh... you'd think she at least would have a bit of decency... even if she _is _sitting in church and undressing the catholic minister with her eyes... God... she's so transparent it's painful to watch..."

"He_ is_ pretty fine." Anna's comment was casually stated. "I'd do him."

"Anna... you're talking about the minister of a _church_. Besides he's like... what... thirty?"

"And Johnny Depp is forty." Claire added. "What's your point?"

"Anyway..." Anna whispered looking around at the others. "Have you guys heard about Mary?"

"Hey... I'm sitting like right here and... oh... right... not me." Someone behind them cleared his throat audibly to let the girls know that talking in church wasn't very polite.

Rosette rolled her eyes and let out a snort. She'd hoped she wouldn't have to think about the senior girl anymore... at least not until she saw her again at school... probably alongside...

Dammit.

"No I haven't heard about... Mary..." She continued after a few seconds of silence. "What about her?"

The two other girls looked at Anna as well.

"Well," the red haired said, "they found her this morning..."

"What?"

"It's true. In a dumpster. Apparently she had been so badly mutilated, that the body was almost unrecognizable."

"She was murdered?"

"When?"

"How?"

"Why?"

"Who?"

"I don't know. It happened sometime after the party last night. But they don't know who did it, and from what I've heard she had ghastly wounds all over her... like she had been ripped apart by wild dogs."

Rosette had become completely mute now, all she could think about was the dream last night... that horribly vivid... dream?

"Hey, are you OK, Rosette?"

"It's just..." The blonde shook her head, staring at the ground in disbelief. "I had a dream last night... after the party... and... Mary was..." She swallowed once, trying to keep down the vomit-inducing displeasure which had risen in her stomach. "She was... killed in that dream."

"Hmm..." Anna, looked at Rosette with a raised eyebrow. "Better not tell the cops about that if they should ever ask you."

"It's just..."

"Oh..." Mary's enthusiasm was a bit too loud, and she was shushed by somebody from another bench. "I mean..." Her voice lowered to a whisper. "What if you're like one of them psychics... you know someone who dreams about other people being murdered before it actually happens and all that..."

"You believe that?" Claire inquired.

"Well... sort of... it could be true... I saw a movie about it once and..."

"Yeah... I've seen it too... it's called 'The Gift' and it wasn't even very good... 'The Ring' was a lot better." Anna cast her eyes skyward letting out a slow sigh.

"But that one isn't even about..." Mary's voice trailed off as she realized the other girl was making fun of her.

Rosette stared at the floor, getting caught up in her own thoughts. Somewhere in the distance she could still hear minister Remington speaking, he must have said something humorous because immediately afterwards there were scattered and muffled laughs, as if he was combining his priestly duties with being a stand-up comedian. He certainly wasn't a type of minister they'd ever had before.

But mind wasn't occupied with the minister, or his mass, or what was happening right now. She was thinking about the fact that Mary had been... murdered. Even if it wasn't somebody she really cared about, it felt awfully close to her because of that dream, and for some reason the words of the other Mary had cut deep into her. She had never believed any of that psychic stuff, always considered it to be somebody trying to scam money out of others. But the vivacity of her dream had made such a thing seem plausible on a whole new and very, very scary level. God... she hoped she wasn't some kind of clairvoyant...

She'd literally be too scared of dreaming, to ever go to sleep ever again.

X X X X X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X X X X

Tuesday. The class before lunch.

_'Regulatory signs, depicting something which is prohibited, are . . . red, yellow and black . . . yellow, white and black . . . white, red and black? Hmm . . . red, yellow and black.'_

Rosette scratched her temple with the pencil.

_'Warning signs are always . . . yellow . . . red . . . white? Yellow!'_

_'Stop signs are shaped like . . . a circle . . . an octagon . . . a trian-'_

"Uhm... excuse me, is this seat taken?"

Rosette's thoughts were immediately broken by the voice and she looked up in slight confusion. "What?" Her mind went even more blank, as she realized the one looking back at her was none other than...

Chris.

"Ehh... I mean... no... no, it isn't." She pulled her books over to her side of the desk, making room for him.

"Thanks."

The sophomore noticed a lot of eyes following the senior as he sat down, some showed envy, others seemed puzzled that a senior was in this class... she would have been too, had she not known he didn't have a driver's license. She noted that a lot in the classroom was radiating... what... dislike? The teacher came down and handed him the multiple choice pop quiz they'd been given today. Rosette hated those things. She always did bad on them, although mostly because she didn't know any of the others taking Driver's Ed, and usually sat alone. Everyone always discussed the tests with each other, because the teacher didn't care and was usually dozing off.

She looked out of the corner of her eye, Chris was studying his own test but making little move to begin taking it, he seemed as if he was somewhere else mentally. Rosette was positive it had to do with Mary.

That must be so...

She couldn't even begin to comprehend what he felt right now. She wanted to say something to him, but simply couldn't think of any words. For some reason this felt really awkward to her.

"First time I've got Driver's Ed here, and we've got a test, and I'm late..." The senior sighed.

Rosette smiled, she was glad he had spoken first, it made it so much easier for her to speak too. "Did you have trouble finding it?"

"Yeah..." He displayed a cautious smile in return, one that made him look very tired. "I really should get to know my way better around here... it's just not a very good way to start... out..." His hands grasped the paper tighter.

_'Oh man . . .' _Rosette thought. She could see it in his expression clearly now, and her mind was racing faster than she could keep up... what the hell was she supposed to say?

"You know..." Perhaps being blunt was the best approach here. "I heard about what happened to Mary... it's really horrible."

"I heard it first, when the police came knocking yesterday." He let out the breath he had held inside. "They asked a bunch of questions, like when I had seen her last, what I was doing when, they weren't exactly friendly."

"What?" This put a whole new spin on things. "They thought _you_ did it."

"They seemed to have made up their minds even before they arrived..." He shook his head in disbelief. "But we didn't even ride back together... just promised we'd see each other the next day... she took her own car and had to drive a couple of friends home too. One of them even knew she had gotten home alright, because she got a call from Mary's home number shortly after she'd gotten home herself." He smiled sadly. "Apparently... that was a call about me..."

Rosette felt an immense sympathy well up inside her, at seeing the helpless expression on his face. "Did you..." She swallowed, these words were somewhat hard to get out. "...like her... a lot?"

"Yeah... or... I guess..." His speech became unintelligible for a few seconds. "Really... I dunno... I mean, she was really nice, but I didn't get to know her that well so..."

Rosette couldn't help wrinkling her nose at the 'nice' comment. Of course the fake bitch would act nice towards him. She halted that line of thought – it wasn't 'nice' to think about the girl that way when she was dead.

"It's just..." Chris let out another slow breath, before turning his gaze directly at the teenage blonde. "It's so close, you know... it's just so hard to believe... and it's kinda scary when something like that happens... so close to you."

"Yeah." Rosette nodded. "I hope they find who did it and lock him up."

"Me too." The violet haired looked towards the front of the class where the teacher had begun emitting a soft snore, his eyes proceeded to glance across the room. Rosette couldn't help but notice that he seemed a lot less confident than what she had perceived until now. "I know this sounds selfish and all that... but what makes all this even worse, is that I'm completely new around here... you know, new guy in a small town... and now Mary... I've seen how people whisper already."

Rosette frowned. So that was what those disapproving looks were all about, people labeling him because he wasn't a 'native', accusing him of what had happened for no other reason than that. Couldn't they see that he was feeling bad enough already without their judging? Would they alienate him because of their ridiculous narrow-mindedness... she could see it happening easily. God, she hated this town and all its pettiness. Before she knew what her body was doing, her hand was on his shoulder as a gesture of comfort, and she immediately became aware of the fact that she was... touching him. "Uhm... I just... I want you to know, that we're not all bigots around here." She just hoped she wasn't blushing.

He gave her a little but very sincere smile, it sent a warm feeling through her, it was so nice to have this sort of... connection with him. Part of her said, that she wasn't supposed to feel like this, that getting close to him at this time was sort of 'vulture-like', that she ought to have more respect for Mary's death... but honestly, she didn't care to work up the discipline.

"Thanks..." He took his own test again, looking over the questions. "You were at the party too." It was a statement rather than a question.

"You saw me?" Did that come out too hopeful...?

"I saw you were dancing with some of your friends, you seemed to be having fun... though you left before they did, didn't you?"

"Yeah..." Rosette bit her lower lip as she thought back on the situation, she was not about to reveal that the night had been one big disaster for her. "Curfew... my mom's real strict about it."

"How did you get home?"

A growing part of her was beginning to seriously enjoy this small talk now. The way he asked questions like that... she couldn't help but think that he cared about her... or maybe she was reading too much into this, and he was just being polite. "I walked."

"Walked?" He looked alarmed.

"Uh... yeah... as in putting one foot in front of the other, it's not that hard."

"It's just that you walked alone... considering everything that's happened."

Rosette's heart skipped a beat, when she realized what he meant. She hadn't thought about that... what if... oh God... it could have been... it could have happened to her! Some fucked up crazy psycho was out there, and she had just strolled home alone in the middle of the night. No wait, not alone. "There was actually this really nice old man named Steiner, he walked me home."

"Steiner walked you home?"

"You know him?"

"Yeah, he's my butler..." He fished out something to fill out his test with. "Or... he's the butler at our house."

"Really?"

"Yep, he's been with us since... forever... pretty much. He didn't tell me he walked you home, but I'm glad he did."

"He's really nice, you know, nice to talk to." _'Sort of . . . like you,' _she added mentally before a frown formed on her face. "I suppose it wouldn't have mattered if that psycho-freak had showed up though."

"It might have. Steiner's not just an old man, he's not very strong, but he's an old fox with a few tricks up his sleeve."

"Like what?"

"He's usually very modest about it, but the fact is, that he's quite skilled at self defense. He even taught me some Aikido once."

"Really?" Rosette asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'd never have thought that." The information did sit rather well with her, there was a comfort in the fact that she had been 'protected' on the way home. Like a temporary bodyguard.

"No, he hides it pretty well... by the way, that one's wrong." The senior hinted towards her test!!

"Huh... oh... which one?"

"That one... with the regulatory signs, they're white, not yellow."

"So it's supposed to be white, red and black? You sure?"

"Positive. It's all Steiner's fault again, the guy can't help acting like a driving teacher, whenever he takes me anywhere."

Rosette smiled as she corrected the answer, she began to forget about the party, about Mary, about the dream, about everything bad that had happened, just focusing on the good happening right now. This was turning out to be a really great Driver's Ed class... not to mention that Chris would be in it next time too! If she could just make sure they kept on sitting next to each other... well, doing better on future pop quizzes might just be the least of the 'benefits'.

* * *

That ended on a bit happier note than last... or a bit more ominous perhaps... and how about that update time, eh :)

Well, considering how long you had to wait for the last chapter, I think it's only fair that I made a bit of an effort to crank out another one. But part of the reason why it got out so much faster (apart from it being more in line with the intended chapter length for the story), was that I was quite inspired to write, since I liked how the chapter literally pulled the emergency break on the plot and began moving it a completely different way... and its not the last time that's gonna happen in this story, I can tell you that.

Now we'll just have to see if this inspirational burst is a one-time thing or if it's a streak I can keep going.

And if you feel like making all this one-way author chat into a two-way thing, a good ice-breaker is as always to tell me what you think ;)


	6. Note

Author note:

Hi, I'm sort of against posting something which isn't an actual update, since AN's really shouldn't get stand alone chapters. Unfortunately I feel I should let you guys know that I've run into the problem of my HD burning down last week (literally - with smoke and a smell of burnt oil/plastic) and I've thus lost a lot of what I was working on. Fanfic-wise this includes almost-finished updates for 'Antichrist', 'Simple math', and 'Tomorrow is another Night' (several future chapters for this one actually), plus something I planned as an add-on chapter to 'Astral line' even though the story was supposed to be finished. I think I've led some to believe that updates were quite close to some of these stories... apparently that was not supposed to be the case. I'll try and get back to writing these things as soon as I am able, but it may be a little while since fanfics weren't the only or most important things lost, just know that none of the mentioned stories are dead.

Again I'd like to thank everone who's reviewed - if it hadn't been for you guys, I wouldn't have the motivation to try and re-create this.

Snooosh.


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